| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.3

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| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgh, 1889–1943. By John F. Bauman and Edward K. Muller. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. xiii, 331 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $27.95.)
This important history of urban planning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, traces its workings from 1889, when the dominant political machine took steps to acquire Schenley Park in the eastern reaches of the city, to 1943, when a pro-growth coalition of Pittsburgh capitalists, political leaders, and urban technical experts took center stage in launching the massive reconstruction program now remembered as the "Pittsburgh Renaissance." Before Renaissance is a detailed study and interpretation of two lesser-known periods of environmental change that preceded the Renaissance.	1
Up to 1910, "ring-led development and planning" prevailed (p. 15). Political kingpins, sometimes working with local capitalists, set in motion whatever public initiatives took place on a project-by-project basis, whether for streets, water mains, sewers, bridges, parks, or public buildings. This era and its talented public works engineer, Edward Bigelow, left their monuments: a park and boulevard system and a cluster of major cultural and educational institutions in Oakland, near Schenley Park. Middle- and upper-class critics ultimately renounced machine politics for its graft, its exorbitant costs, and its self-serving ethics.	. . .

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