OSCAR NEWMANSept 30, 1935Apr i l 14, 2004

Personal Born: Sept. 30, 1935, in Montréal, Canada. American citizen by naturalization: 1972.Professional Graduate in Architecture and City Planning 1959, McGill

University, Montreal (6-year program). Post-graduate studies in housing and city planning in Europe,

primarily in the Netherlands, between 1959 and 1961, resulting in a major monograph published in the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States.

President or Executive Director of three fi rms:

President, The Institute for Community Design Analysis, a not-for-profi t research corporation (since 1972).

President, Oscar Newman and Associates, Architects and City Planners (since 1963).

Executive Director, Interdenominational Housing Program, a not-for-profi t housing organization (since 1986).

INTRODUCTION

Oscar Newman is a registered architect and city planner, known internationally for his architectural work, research, and writings in the fi elds of community planning, assisted housing, crime prevention, and racial integration.

He runs two fi rms in Hensonville, NY: an architectural and planning fi rm that consults throughout the world; and the Institute for Community Design Analysis, a not-for-profi t research corporation that formulates housing policies for federal, state, and local governments. The Institute has successfully completed over $2 million of government funded research.

Mr. Newman recently implemented a Federal Housing Remedy Order in the Yonkers Housing Discrimination case, planning and directing the construction of hundreds of units of scattered-site public housing in white, middle-income areas while maintaining community stability.

Prior to the founding of the Institute, Mr. Newman was professor of architecture and city planning at Washington University in St. Louis, and at Columbia University and New York University in New York.

BIOGRAPHY

The Defensible Space Theory of architect and city planner Oscar Newman encompasses ideas about crime prevention and neighborhood safety. The theory developed in the early 1970s, and he wrote his fi rst book on the topic, Defensible Space in 1972. The book contains a study from New York that pointed out that higher crime rate existed in high-rise apartment buildings than in lower housing projects. This, he concluded, was because residents felt no control or personal responsibility for an area occupied by so many people. Throughout his study, Newman focused on explaining his ideas on social control, crime prevention, and public health in relation to community design.

THE DEFENSIBLE SPACE THEORY

Defensible space is defi ned as "a term used to describe a residential environment whose physical characteristics—building layout and site plan—function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security.“

Society and physical elements are both parts of a successful defensible space.

An area is safer when people feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for that piece of a community.

If an intruder can sense a watchful community, he feels less secure committing his crime .

KEY POINTS OF THE THEORY

There are four factors that make a defensible space:

Territoriality – the idea that one's home is sacred Natural surveillance – the link between an area's

physical characteristics and the residents' ability to see what is happening

Image – the capacity of the physical design to impart a sense of security

Milieu – other features that may aff ect security, such as proximity to a police substation or busy commercial area

FACTORS OF DEFENSIBLE SPACES

To create a sense of territorialism in community members Housing should be grouped in such a way that members

feel a mutual benefi t. To deter crime, areas should be defi ned for function, paths

should be defi ned for movement, outdoor areas should be juxtaposed with homes, and indoor spaces should visually provide for close watch of outside areas.

INTENTION

The assignment to diff erent resident groups the specifi c environments. They are best able to uti l ize and control, as determined by their ages, l i fe-styles, socializing proclivities, backgrounds, incomes, and family structures.

The territorial defi nition of space in residential developments is to refl ect the zone of infl uence of specifi c inhabitants. Residential environments should be subdivided into zones toward which adjacent residents can easily adopt proprietary attitudes.

The juxtaposition of dwell ing interiors with exterior spaces and the placement of windows to allow residents to naturally survey the exterior and interior public areas of their l iving environments and the areas assigned for their use.

The juxtaposition of dwell ings—their entries and amenities—with city streets so as to incorporate the streets within the sphere of infl uence of the residential environment.

The adoption of building forms and idioms that avoids the stigma of peculiarity that allows others to perceive the vulnerabil ity and isolation of a particular group of inhabitants.

PRINCIPLES

Dwelling unit: I t is the interior ofan apartment unit or home.

Building typology

SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSES DETACHED HOUSES ; SEMIDETACHED HOUSES ; AND ROW HOUS ES (ROW HOUSES ARE ALSO CALLED TOWN HOUSES ) .

WALK-UP BUILDINGS

THE ELEVATOR HIGH-RISE

The rear yards, which are fully enclosed, are private.

semiprivate lawn abuts the sidewalk, and the family car is parked at the curb.

most of the outdoor areas and all of the indoor areas are private

a good portion of what is a legally public street is viewed by residents as an extension of their dwellings

THE EFFECT OF BUILDING TYPE ON RESIDENTS’ CONTROL OF STREETS ROW-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT

The families living on the ground fl oor have been given their own patios within the interior courts

The remainder of the interior court belongs to all the families sharing a cluster

Each entry now serves six families rather than one and is thus semiprivate rather than private

the sidewalk and street are not clear extensions of the realms of individual dwelling units.

GARDEN APARTMENT DEVELOPMENT

The grounds around the buildings are accessible to everyone and are not assigned to particular Buildings

no building entries face streets therefore the sidewalks are also public

the entire ground surface of the four-block area is public

All the grounds of the project must be maintained by management

HIGH-RISE DEVELOPMENT

A high rise and a walkup built at the same density.

The project on the left is turned in on itself, away from the public street,

while the one on the right brings the streets within the control of the residents.

A HIGH-RISE AND WALK-UP BUILT AT THE SAME DENSITY

Both buildings serve a total of 24 families each.

In the upper layout, all 24 families share 2 common entrances and 8 families share a common corridor on each fl oor.

In the lower design, only 6 families share a common entry, and only 2 families share a common landing on each fl oor.

COMPARISON OF TWO WALKUPS SUBDIVIDED DIFFERENTLY

Pru i t t - Igoe in St . Lou is

Carr Square

Five Oak ,Oh io

C lason Po int Vi l lage

Yonkers

CASE STUDIES

OVERALL VIEW OF PRUITT-IGOE IN ST. LOUIS

2,740-unit public housing high-rise.

It followed the planning principles of Le Corbusier and the International Congress of Modern Architects.

Residents were raised into the air in 11-story buildings.

“A river of trees” was to fl ow under the buildings.

The idea was to keep the grounds and the fi rst fl oor free for communal activity.

Occupied by single-parent, welfare families, the design proved a disaster. Because all the grounds were common and disassociated from the units, residents could not identify with them.

Building was given communal corridors on every third fl oor to house laundry, communal room, and a garbage room that contained a garbage chute.

The river of trees soon became a sewer of glass and garbage. The mail-boxes on the ground fl oor were vandalized.

ARCHITECT'S VISION OF COMMUNAL CORRIDOR

The areas proved unsafe. The corridors, lobbies,

elevators, and stairs were dangerous places to walk. They became covered with graffi ti and littered with garbage and human waste.

Women had to get together in groups to use the corridor.

ACTUAL 3RD FLOOR COMMUNAL CORRIDOR OF PRUITT-IGOE

Excluding the interior public areas of the development there were occasional pockets that were clean, safe, and well-tended. Where only two families shared a landing, it was clean and well-maintained. Vast diff erence between the interior of the apartment and the public spaces outside.

One could only conclude that residents maintained and controlled those areas that were clearly defi ned as their own. Landings shared by only two families were well maintained, whereas corridors shared by 20 families, and lobbies, elevators, and stairs shared by 150 families were a disaster—they evoked no feelings of identity or control.

VANDALISM IN PRUITT-IGOE

The project never achieved more than 60 percent occupancy.

It was torn down about 10 years after its construction and became a precursor of what was to happen elsewhere in the country.

PRUITT-IGOE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING TORN DOWN

Across the street from Pruitt-Igoe was an older, smaller, row-house complex, Carr Square Village, occupied by an identical population.

It had remained fully occupied and trouble-free throughout the construction & occupancy.

CARR SQUARE VILLAGE

Relationship between the increase in crime and increased building height and that crime is mostly located within public areas.

GRAPH OF INCREASE IN CRIME WITH BUILDING HEIGHT

Contains 2,000 households, or about 5,000 people, inhabit ing one- and two-family homes and some small apartment bui ldings.

The problems experienced by Five Oaks are typical of older urban communities located near the downtown core: heavy through traffi c; r ising cr ime; the visual presence of drug dealers and prostitutes; single-family homes being converted to multifamily use; the continuing replacement of white, middle- and working-class property owners with low-income, minority renters; and general disinvestment.

MINI-NEIGHBORHOODS INFIVE OAKS, DAYTON, OHIO

Five Oaks’ location between the downtown and the suburbs also turned its interior streets into a network of cut-through traffic as commuters used them to avoid the larger, traffic-laden arterials at the periphery of the community.

It contains a variety of diff erent types of housing: stately homes constructed of brick and stone and situated on large lots; wood frame houses on small lots. Other streets contain two story, two-family houses that share a common wall, and two- and three-story apartment buildings. Some of the arterial streets have medium high-rise apartment buildings on them.

Many homeowners had move away and were renting their units in either their original form or subdivided. This was partially because they were unable to sell their homes at reasonable prices.

MAP OF FIVE OAKS SHOWING PERCENT OF RENTERS INDIFFERENT AREAS

The dynamics of population change in the community had led to increased tensions between the older, permanent homeowners and the new, transient renters who were seen as a threat to the stability of the neighborhood.

The community had entered a spiral of decline that appeared irreversible.

GATES CLOSING OFF STREET

Restructuring of streets to create mini-neighborhoods accomplishes:

It alters the entire look and function of the community; it completely removes vehicular through-traffi c (the only

traffi c remaining will be seeking destinations within each mini neighborhood);

It completely changes the character of the streets (instead of being long, directional avenues laden with traffi c, they become places where children can play safely and neighbors can interact).

By limiting vehicular access, the streets are perceived as being under the control of the residents. Fewer cars make it easier to recognize neighbors—and strangers.

GATES CLOSING OFF STREET

Resident participation in paying for the gates is important for three reasons:■ It instills a sense of ownership, and enhancing proprietary feelings. Paying for one half the cost of the modifi cations gives residents a possessive attitude toward the gates and the semiprivate streets they create.■ It gives the community more control over the future of the modifi cations.

Cul-de-sac confi gurations should not be too large, for they take residents too far out of their way and produce too much of their own internal traffi c.

GREEK CROSS PLAN FOR IDEAL MINI-NEIGHBORHOOD

Mini-neighborhoods and their access arterials should be designed to facilitate access but discourage through-traffi c in the overall Five Oaks community.

Once the mini-neighborhoods are defi ned, people are asked to become mini-neighborhood captains. Their job is to make certain that every household in their mini-neighborhood is aware of what is being planned and participates in determining which street will remain open and where the gates will be placed.

SCHEMATIC SHOWING IDEAL WAY TO ACCESS MINI-NEIGHBORHOODS FROM ARTERIALS.

TURN-AROUND AT END OF STREET

Renter and homeowner children playing together in a cul-de-sac street. The gates can be seen at rear.

With the neighborhood changing and housing values going up, people found that it now paid to make improvements.

CHILDREN PLAYING IN CLOSED STREET

The modifi cation of a row-house public housing project in the South Bronx in New York City, where design strategies included the use of fencing and curbs to reassign open grounds to individual residents, as well as new paths, lighting, and play equipment to improve the appearance of the project. The overall crime rate dropped 54 percent in the fi rst year after these changes were made.

400-unit public housing project a comparatively high-crime area

It consists of 46 buildings that mostly contain row houses. Smaller walkup units for seniors are located at the ends of

some buildings. At 25 units per acre, this is a dense project by rowhouse

standards. Such a high density was achieved by limiting off-street parking to 0.15 spaces per unit.

CLASON POINT

Tenants identifi ed the central area as the most dangerous part of the project.

CENTRAL AREA BEFORE MODIFICATIONS

Note that the extended front yards of neighboring homes now border the central area, bringing more under residents’ control.

To the surprise of many residents, the grass came up in abundance, and the ground surface changed from packed dirt to a carpet of green.

CENTRAL AREA AS MODIFIED

As Clason Point was almost devoid of play and sitting areas, He decided to transform this no-man’s land into an intensive community recreation area for al l age groups.

this central area was also located at the intersection of a few of the newly created walks, he turned it into a heavily travelled, well congregated, and inviting area by treating it with the same l ighting, play equipment, and seating I had provided elsewhere.

Play node for young children: a sandbox and a cl imber located to serve a small cluster of famil ies.

TYPICAL AREA AFTER MODIFICATIONS

Plan for the conversion of the central area into a facility serving, from left to right, the elderly, young children, and teens.

The Central Area as modifi ed. Note that the extended front yards of neighboring homes now border the Central Area, bringing more under their control.

Aerial view of a small portion of Clason Point showing how the six foot fencing was installed to create collective rear yards and the curbing to defi ne front yards. Note the location of the play node serving a small cluster of families.

The dispersal of 200 high-rise public housing families into scattered-site townhouses in middle-class neighborhoods of Yonkers, New York. This dispersion strategy involved integrating designs with the surrounding neighborhoods, adhering to "Defensible Space" concepts in grounds design, and training residents in home maintenance.

DISPERSED, SCATTERED-SITEPUBLIC HOUSING IN YONKERS

the 200 public housing Units located on 7 sites.

24 units on one sitecrime increased with

the number of units in a housing project.

the housing to look like that of the surrounding community so as to make it unnoticeable.

TYPICAL SITE PLAN FOR A 24-UNIT SITE

he was left with only seven sites because of government disapproval

forced to put as many as 48 units on 1 site and 44 on another.

Their comparatively large size meant that these two sites Would have to have their own internal street systems,

TYPICAL SITE PLAN FOR A 48-UNIT SITE.

All areas of each unit and site would be assigned for the specifi c, private use of individual families.

chose two-story row houses as our building type Rather than high-rise that have interior public areas.no public lobbies, no corridors, no fi re stairs, no

elevators. decided to do away with the collective garbage

dumpsters that normally serve large groups of residentsThese would be replaced with individual garbage cans,

serving each unit

The new units seek to capture the look and feel of the private housing.

EXISTING HOUSING ON LEFT NEW HOUSING ON RIGHT

Each family’s rear yard was to be defi ned by a small fence

small clusters of rear yards were to be collectively fenced-off from the surrounding streets by a taller, 6-foot fence.

Typical garbage dumpsterserving public housing.

Individual garbage cansalong the walks leading upto each unit in Yonkers’scattered sites.

RESIDENTS' ADOPTION OF REAR YARDS AS THEIR OWN

RESIDENTS' FRONT YARDS AND INDIVIDUAL GARBAGE CANS

CRIMES

As established by Newman, defensible space must contain two components.

1.First, defensible space should allow people to see and be seen continuously.2.Second, people must be willing to intervene or report crime when it occurs. The theory of crime prevention through environmental

design is based on one simple idea -- that crime results partly from the opportunities presented by physical environment. This being the case it should be possible to alter the physical environment so that crime is less likely to occur.

Newman put much of the blame for the high crime rates of public housing “projects” on their lay-out and design.

These factors conspired to attract criminal predators who could commit their crimes with l i tt le fear of arrest.

The purpose of Newman’s suggestions was to encourage natural territorial behavior on the part of residents by enabling them to give survei l lance to the public areas around their individual residences. Nevertheless, Newman has had an enormous impact on the

design of public housing in many parts of the world. The wholesale abandonment of tower block buildings for public housing owes much to his arguments about their criminogenic potential.

Research shows that crime rates are influenced by the design of both the building and the space surrounding the building. The key elements to look for are:

◗ Semi-public or semi-private space◗ Sense of community◗ Maintenance◗ Siting

DESIGNS AND CODES THAT REDUCE CRIME AROUND MULTIFAMILY

HOUSING

Defi ning space as semi-public or semi-private

Architect Oscar Newman, in 1971, reported crime rates to be much higher in high-rise buildings surrounded by open space than in low-rise buildings with central courtyards. Open space surrounding high-rise buildings belongs to no one – it becomes a no man’s land. If a space is clearly designated as semi-public or semi-private, as were the courtyards and stoops in the low-rise buildings studied by Newman, residents know who belongs and who doesn’t.

Developing Designs that Allow a Community to Develop a sense of community

Research found that rates of v io lent cr ime in neighborhoods where residents knew and watched out for one another were as much as 40% lower than in neighborhoods where a sense of community was not present.

Some of the most affl uent neighborhoods studied had a poor sense of community (and high cr ime rates) , whi le some of the poorest had a strong sense of community (and lower cr ime rates) .

To form relat ionships, people need a place and a reason to get together. This can be accommodated by providing gathering places l ike a small playground for chi ldren, a community garden, or even a front porch or stoop.

The presence of trees and grass has also been associated with reduced cr ime rates, possibly because residents of a wel l landscaped bui lding spend more t ime outside, al lowing them to get to know one another and develop a sense of community.

Maintaining the propertyResearchers have, for years, recognized something

called the broken windows syndrome. If property is not cared for, it appears that no one is asserting ownership and no one cares about it. These properties become magnets for crime.

Choosing the site

Numerous communities have found that concentrating poverty breeds discontent and exacerbates social problems.

Siting housing for low-income residents near transit, grocery stores, work places and other services also addresses the negative consequences of isolating the poor and leaving them unable to help themselves.

Al-Kasim appartments is a high-rise, low-income housing project , surrounded by open space – the public area was a no man’s land.

Askari apt is a housing co-op with three-story units built around a common compound. Windows overlook the compound space.

Studying these two housing developments, it was found that very few Al-Kasim appartment residents said they would come to the aid of a crime victim in their neighborhood. In Askari apt, the majority said they would surely come to the rescue of a neighbor.

The APWA housing pro ject in Shah fa isa l co lony, i s home to aproximately 1,000 res idences, the major i ty of whom l ive below the poverty l ine. Faced wi th the phys ica l decay and soc ia l co l lapse of Shah fa isa l Town, the redevelopment agency dec ided to ret rofi t the hous ing rather than demol ish i t .

The s i te was modifi ed to create a ser ies of smal l house, connected by st reets and paths. The vacant land or destroyed house were redes igned to l ine the st reets wi th f ront porches, wel l -defi ned f ront doors , and boundarys that surround indiv idual f ront and back yards. Many res idents have created gardens and p lanted fl owers around thei r homes. Before the physical renovations occurred, the pol ice department was responding to 30 cal ls a day from the area. After the redesign, the number decreased to two to three per week.