Cities Relearning Their Relationships with Rivers

Jared Green provides a recap of some of the best ideas to come out of the recent "River Cities" event held at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C. The event gathered landscape architects, academics, and urban planners to present their best ideas about an evolving field of study.

Green's summary focuses on the work of Vittoria Di Palma and Alexander Robinson, ASLA, both professors at University of Southern California, who provided a history tour of the Los Angeles River, from its past as the original, defining characteristic of the city of Los Angeles at its birth to its channelization and its ongoing rebirth.

Ray Gastil, head of planning for Pittsburgh, was on hand to discuss the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, which have been the scene of a long and ongoing push and pull between industrial and recreational uses. Much of the progress in recovering riverfront areas has come through the implementation of the Three River Parks Plan.

Green adds another American river, the San Antonio River in San Antonio, Texas, as well as several European rivers to the list of case studies examined by the event.