Edmund Bacon

Edmund N. Bacon (May 2, 1910 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a noted Urban Planner whose visions shaped today's Philadelphia. Bacon was the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. Bacon currently serves as a Honorary Director of the foundation that bares his name, The Ed Bacon Foundation.

Related Topics:
May 2 - 1910 - Philadelphia - Pennsylvania - Urban Planner - 1949 - 1970 - The Ed Bacon Foundation

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Bacon was educated in architecture at Cornell University, and subsequently studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art with renowned Finnish architect/planner Eliel Saarinen. Bacon found work as an architect in China and Philadelphia, eventually becoming a city planner in Flint, Michigan. From Flint Bacon would go on to serve as Director of the Philadelphia Housing Association, where he was co-designer of the 1947 Better Philadelphia Exhibition, and was also an early member of the City Policy Committee, instrumental in Philadelphia's political reform movement.

Related Topics:
Cornell University - Finnish - Eliel Saarinen - China - Flint, Michigan - 1947 - Better Philadelphia Exhibition

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In 1949, Bacon became Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, and was hailed as a national celebrity as his face graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1964. In 1965, Life Magazine devoted its cover story to Bacon's work. That same year, Bacon sat on the White House's Panel on Recreation and Natural Beauty. In 1967, Bacon wrote Design of Cities, still considered an important architectural text.

Related Topics:
Time Magazine - 1964 - Life Magazine - White House's - Design of Cities

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It was during his tenure at the City Planning Commission, Bacon conceived and implemented numerous large and small scale visions that shaped today's Philadelphia. Bacon's design concepts became Penn Center, Market East, Penn's Landing, Society Hill, Independence Mall, and the Far Northeast.

Related Topics:
Penn Center - Market East - Penn's Landing - Society Hill - Independence Mall - Far Northeast

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Not all of Bacon's designs went into effect though, one of his proposals was to encircle Center City with series of expressways, including the so-called "Crosstown Expressway" linking the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) to the Delaware Expressway I-95 by way of South Street. The proposal lowered property values and rents in the South Street corridor though after the proposal was canceled property values began a slow and tedious rebound, epically in the area east of Broad Street. This change in the property values lead to a turnover of the neighborhood character from largely Jewish-owned garment shops to the bohemian neighborhood that it is today.

Related Topics:
Center City - Schuylkill Expressway - I-76 - Delaware Expressway - I-95 - South Street - Bohemian

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Since Bacon's retirement from the City Planning Commission in 1970, he served as vice president for private planning firm Mondev U.S.A., was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pennsylvania, and narrated a series of city planning films. Bacon has won numerous honors including the American Institute of Planners Distinguished Service Award and the Philadelphia Award.

Related Topics:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - University of Pennsylvania - American Institute of Planners

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Bacon continues to actively assert his vision for Philadelphia's future. During 1990s he proposed new concepts to improve Independence Mall, Penn's Landing, and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. In 2002 he skateboarded in LOVE Park, the plaza he designed at Cornell in 1932, as a protest against the City's ban on the sport.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Franklin Parkway - LOVE Park

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Bacon is the father of actor Kevin Bacon.

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