As we have progressed into the 21st century we have seen Philadelphia emerge as one of the United States most well-known cities. It is a hub of culture, sports, and much more. But we never talk about how and why Philadelphia came to be. In 1681 a man named William Penn came over from England to create a city that he envisioned in his own mind. This city today is Philadelphia.
Penn came to the United States to create a city that allowed religious freedom, he was a Quaker, and to create a city of the future. The land he acquired was situated between two large rivers which was ideal in these times because it allowed for transportation and trade. This would set the stage for his vision. Penn wanted to design and develop a city that was built on a grided system and that encompassed a city that we are less dense than most cities of its time. Penn was one of the first developers ever to introduce the grided system into a system. This is a model that developers across cities all use because it allows for an organized city rather than a sprawled one that provides no organization. Penn’s idea for less density was inspired by the London fire. In the London fire most of London was destroyed because of how dense the city was designed causing Penn to have the idea of a less dense future so a problem like this could not arise. Another interesting idea he took from Paris was the introduction of many green areas and places where people could gather to give the city more of identity and closer together.
William Penn was a figure that came to America with the idea to create a utopia for people that wanted to be apart of a city and for religious freedom. Little did he know his city organization and development would become a model for how we develop cities in the modern eye.
I didn't know this about Philadelphia, but this is super interesting. This is probably really helpful to city designers compared to other old cities of the time that were made densely in comparison. Especially with the advent of cars, it is cool that William Penn was a visionary in planning as well as religious freedom.
This is super interesting. As someone whose from Philadelphia I knew the general history of the city in regards to William Penn, but the specificities of how he was inspired by cities like London and Paris in his creation of Philadelphia was unknown to me. Now that I think about it, I can totally see the comparisons to Paris in regards to the public gardens/open green spaces around the city (I can't comment on the comparisons to London as I've never been). I think if you look at places like Washington Square or Rittenhouse for example, you can see the connection with the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris which is super cool (the ones in philly are definitely more scaled…
This is a very interesting blog post - it's important to remember the essence and ideas a city was founded upon. When I visited Philadelphia a few years ago, I felt that the city planning was a lot different than that of cities in California. The colonial roots have certainly influenced a lot of the city's layout and features, and this is in large part thanks to William Penn for redesigning the city to avoid a catastrophe like the London fires.
I thought this blog post was really interesting! I was not aware of the history of Philadelphia especially in terms of William Penn having a specific vision for the city he wished to create. Clearly, his ideas deemed to be successful in regard to creating a system that provided organization. The fact that modern cities take influence from Penn's organization and developmental ideas, truly shows how influential and intelligent William Penn is. Great post!