A Negotiated Landscape: The Transformation of San Francisco's Waterfront since 1950

by Jasper Rubin

Overview

A Negotiated Landscape examines the transformation of San Francisco's iconic waterfront from the eve of its decline in 1950 to the turn of the millennium. What was once a major shipping port is now best known for leisure and entertainment. To understand this landscape Jasper Rubin not only explores the built environment but also the major forces that have been at work in its redevelopment. While factors such as new transportation technology and economic restructuring have been essential to the process and character of the waterfront's transformation, the impact of local, grassroots efforts by planners, activists, and boosters have been equally critical. The first edition of A Negotiated Landscape won the 2012 prize for best book in planning history from the International Planning History Society. Much has changed in the five years since that edition was published. For this second edition Rubin provides a new concluding chapter that updates the progress of planning on San Francisco's waterfront and examines debates over the newest visions for its development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822981442
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	04/24/2016
Series:	Pittsburgh Hist Urban Environ
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jasper Rubin is associate professor of urban studies and planning at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Oceans Apart: The San Francisco Waterfront Now and Then 2. A Sea Change 3. In the Absence of Plans: Grand Schemes of the 1950s and 1960s 4. Don’t Fill Me In: The Rise of Regulation and the Decline of Modernist Visions 5. In Local Hands: New Pressures of the 1970s 6. The Best Laid Plans 7. Questionable Results: The Northern Waterfront in the 1970s and 1980s 8. A Waterfront Planned: The 1990s and the New Millennium 9. Whose Waterfront? Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

Jasper Rubin provides a detailed, well-researched, and engaging narrative and an important explanation for the transformation of a key American waterfront. For those interested in the historical evolution of urban planning vis-à-vis port cities, Rubin has done much to illuminate the many people and processes that shaped San Francisco’s waterfront landscape.”
—Planning Perspectives


“Jasper Rubin not only provides the details of the many visions for the waterfront and the disagreements that led to San Francisco’s current planning process, but he also points to trends in planning that have been influential in many other cities.”
—Social and Cultural Geography


“A fine addition to scholarship on the political economy of urban land use and development.”
—Urban Geography


"Informative both in the details of local plans and processes, and in providing the big picture of the development of a city that is considered to be one of the most attractive across the globe. This trajectory tends to expose a high risk to the natural environment and to the social coherence of the city, thus creating a tension that makes the book an informative read. Rubin's excellent work is cautious in its judgments and does not overlook the signs of hope evolving from current planning processes."
—Local Environment


Rubin has done an excellent job of chronicling the twists and turns in the development of the San Francisco waterfront. . . . as Rubin reminds the reader, one cost is a loss of potential housing that might, or might not, have lifted a little of the extreme pressure current residents face in finding affordable housing. Ultimately, the book tells the story of an immense change that has affected many cities around the world.
—Journal of Planning Education and Research 

From the Publisher

The best thing about Jasper Rubin's new book on San Francisco's waterfront is that it opens a window onto landscapes that do not exist. . . . The fascination lies in the details that Rubin lays out with readable precision. Scheme after scheme was unfurled. Plan after plan was conceived. Yet the arc from busy port to scenic promenade was shaped by happenstance as much as anything else.”—San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

“The best thing about Jasper Rubin's new book on San Francisco's waterfront is that it opens a window onto landscapes that do not exist. . . . The fascination lies in the details that Rubin lays out with readable precision. Scheme after scheme was unfurled. Plan after plan was conceived. Yet the arc from busy port to scenic promenade was shaped by happenstance as much as anything else.”—San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle