20th century urban planning was the French Revolution for buildings. I mean that literally. What we did to our historic cities, and the way we reoriented how we built places, was, in every sense of the word, a revolution. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

Accounting, obviously, for modern conveniences, an America in which urbanism “won” would be an America in which the clock was turned back a century. In this sense, urbanism is a small-c conservative cause. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

As the saying goes, cookie-cutter is okay if the cookies are good. The cookies used to be good. When the pattern you are replicating is good, a lot of work is done for you. And a lot of work is done for you, too, if you’re willing to learn from the past. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

I've been revisiting some of the early themes that got me interested in writing about urbanism lately, and here's one of those pieces: why I think of urbanism as a fundamentally conservative cause thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

The French Revolution For Buildings, by Addison Del Mastro open.substack.com/pub/thedeleted…

Rediscovery or restoration is not an ideology of the past; it is a humility and curiosity as to why the world we live in exists, how and why it was built, and what we can learn from it that others might have seen as superfluous or outdated. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

"Urbanism is restoration, rediscovery. Not in a grand political sense, but in the sense of finding some old thing in your grandma’s closet and looking at it closely and thinking, *Wow, this is cool, it’s really well-made, I wonder what this was for?*" thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

Edmund Burke, in Reflections on the Revolution in France, wrote this: “Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.” This is an insight, but it is also a description. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

'Vacations.' The word is 'vacations.'

Urban renewal was the French Revolution for buildings thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

"It would take a great conscious effort to do again what we had once done almost by rote. When the pattern you are replicating is good, a lot of work is done for you. And a lot of work is done for you, too, if you’re willing to learn from the past." thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

What we did to our historic cities in the 20th century, and the way we reoriented how we built places, was, in every sense of the word, a revolution. It’s curious that those opposed to this new revolutionary status quo are the ones viewed as radicals. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…

I guess a spicier, but not at all wrong, headline could have been "Robert Moses Was Robespierre For Cities" thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/the-french-r…