06. Ludwig Hilberseimer, traffic redevelopment plan for the south side of Chicago, c.1955.
Hilberseimer was known to have summed up his philosophy on planning with one question: "should not children go to school without crossing a street?" In a 1962 letter to Architectural Record he writes: "Our cities are still pedestrian cities, as they were thousands of years ago. The two elements introduced by the industrial revolution—industry and mechanical means of transportation—have been largely ignored in city planning." In this diagram from The Nature of Cities (1955), Hilberseimer demonstrates the "superblock" in which existing blocks are combined in order to keep residential areas relatively free from automobile traffic.

"Chicago Looks Ahead: 100 Years of Planning, 1909-2009," Case 4, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, September 29–December 1, 2010
Link to R&B Archives Digital Collections record