A Review of the Federally Subsidized Greenbelt Construction Project :: City Planning Public Administration

A Review of the Federally Subsidized Greenbelt Construction Project In 1935, the Resettlement Administration undertook the Greenbelt construction project which was to serve three major purposes: 1. Provide useful employment for thousands of jobless workers who were hit hard by the Great Depression 2. Demonstrate a new type of community planning, combining city conveniences with many advantages of rural life 3. Demonstrate better utilization of land in suburban areas (Walker 16). In this project, I would like to discuss some of the aspects of the construction, including the labor and materials used, as well as some economic and safety concerns. Keep in mind that these factors continually intertwine in the construction business and many times it is hard to discretely separate the roles played by each factor in individual design decisions. Safety was, indeed, a major concern of the designers. After all, this project was to provide housing for citizens who had already suffered through the Great Depression, and Roosevelt agreed to this project because it would provide a "Utopia" for the stricken citizens. Certainly, safety should be pretty high on the list of "Utopia" ingredients. Designers felt that a special effort would have to be made to ensure safety because they had some disturbing statistics on their minds. In 1922, 100 lives were lost when the Knickerbocker Theater building collapsed in Washington. This tragedy was caused by a weak structure and surely could have been prevented by stricter building codes. Additionally, fire caused a major threat. According to the Bureau of Census, 7,874 lives were lost in 1935 due to inhalation and burns, the majority of which occurred in homes (Thompson 95). Many of the homes in America at that time were old and dilapidated like the one in the picture. As you can imagine, a home like this would be a definite fire hazard. In order to address these safety issues, the Greenbelt homes were built to rigid building code standards. Fire resistive materials were used as much as possible. These materials included brick veneer, asbestos shingles, and cinder block. Note that in 1935, asbestos was not known to be hazardous to one's health. In fact, only positive qualities for this material are mentioned in the Kidder-Parker Architects' and Builders' Handbook. Under "Asbestos Siding and Roofing Shingles", it states: "because of incombustibility, low coefficient of expansion, and low heat-conductivity, asbestos products will withstand high temperatures without disintegration or loss of strength" (Parker 923).