City Planning and Infrastructure: Once and Future Partners

Abstract

Great cities are born of and give rise to great infrastructure. Historically, city planning has been deeply rooted in infrastructure and physical planning. One of its ontological bases has been to create urban place out of space through the intermediary of infrastructure. Currently, the links between infrastructure and city planning may be described as numerous but nonstrategic and noncomprehensive, even as the bond between infrastructure and cities remains tight. In part, this is because the planning profession has left key roles in infrastructure to other professions. This article chronicles the rises and falls in the fortunes of urban infrastructure in relation to city planning.