77-714: Sunnyside Gardens is a community within Sunnyside , a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens . The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the first decades of the twentieth century by Ebenezer Howard and Raymond Unwin , specifically Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City . Covering 77 acres (31 ha) between Queens Boulevard and Sunnyside Yard , Sunnyside Gardens
154-603: A bedroom community after the Queensboro Bridge was completed in 1909. A large portion of the neighborhood is six-story apartment buildings constructed during the 1920s and 1930s. Sunnyside is located in Queens Community District 2 and its ZIP Codes are 11101, 11104, and 11377. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department 's 108th Precinct. Politically, Sunnyside is represented by
231-494: A college education or higher, 19% have less than a high school education and 35% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Sunnyside and Woodside students excelling in math rose from 40% in 2000 to 65% in 2011, and reading achievement rose from 45% to 49% during the same time period. Sunnyside and Woodside's rate of elementary school student absenteeism
308-515: A high population of residents who are uninsured . In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 16%, which is higher than the citywide rate of 12%. The concentration of fine particulate matter , the deadliest type of air pollutant , in Sunnyside and Woodside is 0.0093 milligrams per cubic metre (9.3 × 10 oz/cu ft), higher than the city average. Fourteen percent of Sunnyside and Woodside residents are smokers , which
385-411: A homeostatic relationship between resources and needs. This notion of plenitude becomes clearer if we suggest that the biotechnic society would relate to its technology in the manner an animal relates to available food–under circumstances of natural satisfaction, the pursuit of technological advance would not simply continue "for its own sake". Alongside the limiting effect of satisfaction amidst plenitude,
462-628: A new Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North train station in Sunnyside at Queens Boulevard along the LIRR's Main Line (into Penn Station) will provide one-stop access for area residents to Midtown Manhattan . Notable celebrities include Johanna Magdalena Beyer , Perry Como , Nancy Walker , Benh Zeitlin , David Horowitz , Judy Holliday , Joe Spinell , James Caan and Rudy Vallée ; artist Raphael Soyer , and writers and social activists such as Lewis Mumford and Suze Rotolo . William Stuart-Houston ,
539-595: A plateau of efficient design which would call for only minimal changes from year to year." He uses his own refrigerator as an example, reporting that it "has been in service for nineteen years, with only a single minor repair: an admirable job. Both automatic refrigerators for daily use and deepfreeze preservation are inventions of permanent value. ... [O]ne can hardly doubt that if biotechnic criteria were heeded, rather than those of market analysts and fashion experts, an equally good product might come forth from Detroit, with an equally long prospect of continued use." Mumford
616-403: A platform from which to assess technologies, and techniques in general. Thus his criticism and counsel with respect to the city and with respect to the implementation of technology was fundamentally organized around the organic humanism to which he subscribed. It was from the perspective of organic humanism that Mumford eventually launched a critical assessment of Marshall McLuhan , who argued that
693-529: A plethora of hazards, and that it would do so into the future. For Mumford, human hazards are rooted in a power-oriented technology that does not adequately respect and accommodate the essential nature of humanity. Mumford is stating implicitly, as others would later state explicitly, that contemporary human life understood in its ecological sense is out of balance because the technical parts of its ecology (guns, bombs, cars, drugs) have spiraled out of control, driven by forces peculiar to them rather than constrained by
770-431: A small front garden facing the street and a private garden in the rear. The rental units in the two- and three-family houses enjoy private terraces overlooking the gardens. There are two configurations: the courtyard condition and the mews condition; at the edges of the community some homes simply line the street, with a common walkway running the length of the row. Homes in the courtyard blocks enclose an inner courtyard that
847-490: A technology) created, as a side effect, a context for irrational accumulation of excess because it eliminated the burdensome aspects of object-wealth by making wealth abstract. In those eras when wealth was not abstract, plenitude had functioned as the organizing principle around its acquisition (i.e., wealth, measured in grains, lands, animals, to the point that one is satisfied, but not saddled with it). Money, which allows wealth to be conceived as pure quantity instead of quality,
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#1733093871964924-598: A variety of ethnic cuisine, which is showcased during an annual springtime food festival called Taste of Sunnyside where people can sample cuisines from local restaurants. As according to the 2020 census from the New York City Department of City Planning the neighborhood were approximately equally populated by White, Hispanic, and Asian populations with each of them being between 10,000 to 19,999 residents, however there were less than 5000 Black residents. Woodside, Sunnyside, and Long Island City are patrolled by
1001-796: A whole. The 108th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 88.2% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 2 murders, 12 rapes, 90 robberies, 108 felony assaults, 109 burglaries, 490 grand larcenies, and 114 grand larcenies auto in 2018. Sunnyside is served by the following New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations: As of 2018 , preterm births are more common in Sunnyside and Woodside than in other places citywide, but births to teenage mothers are less common. In Sunnyside and Woodside, there were 90 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 14.9 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Sunnyside and Woodside has
1078-808: Is a curse that falls impartially upon both sides of our existence. Mumford's interest in the history of technology and his explanation of "polytechnics", along with his general philosophical bent, has been an important influence on a number of more recent thinkers concerned that technology serve human beings as broadly and well as possible. Some of these authors—such as Jacques Ellul , Witold Rybczynski , Richard Gregg , Amory Lovins , J. Baldwin , E. F. Schumacher , Herbert Marcuse , Erich Fromm , Murray Bookchin , Thomas Merton , Marshall McLuhan , Colin Ward , and Kevin Carson —have been intellectuals and persons directly involved with technological development and decisions about
1155-478: Is a national historic district that includes 66 contributing buildings and 12 contributing sites. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and as a city historic district in 2007. In 2003, a grassroots movement started to request designation as a New York City Historic District, in response to lack of protection for the historic character of the homes in the neighborhood. The campaign
1232-614: Is a piece of power-machinery whose 'product' is seconds and minutes ...." The City in History won the 1962 U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction . In this influential book Mumford explored the development of urban civilizations. Harshly critical of urban sprawl , Mumford argues that the structure of modern cities is partially responsible for many social problems seen in western society. While pessimistic in tone, Mumford argues that urban planning should emphasize an 'organic' relationship between people and their living spaces. Mumford uses
1309-571: Is an example of megatechnics, one which can spiral out of control. If Mumford is right in this conceptualization, historians and economists should be able to trace a relationship between the still-increasing abstraction of wealth and radical transformations with respect to wealth's distribution and role. And, indeed, it does appear that, alongside its many benefits, the movement toward electronic money has stimulated forms of economic stress and exploitation not yet fully understood and not yet come to their conclusion. A technology for distributing resources that
1386-604: Is connected to Manhattan via the Long Island Expressway and the Queens Midtown Tunnel and to Brooklyn via the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway . Sunnyside is also known for the former Pennsylvania Railroad (now Amtrak ) railyard known as Sunnyside Yard . It is a staging area for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains leaving from Penn Station . The Penn Station Access project will include
1463-503: Is covered by three ZIP Codes . The area west of 39th Street is covered by 11101, while Sunnyside Gardens is located in 11104, and the area east of 45th Street is inside 11377. The United States Post Office operates the Sunnyside Station at 45-15 44th Street. Sunnyside and Woodside generally has a slightly higher ratio of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018 . While 45% of residents age 25 and older have
1540-412: Is equal to the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Sunnyside and Woodside, 20% of residents are obese , 9% are diabetic , and 23% have high blood pressure —compared to the citywide averages of 20%, 14%, and 24% respectively. In addition, 19% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%. Ninety-two percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which
1617-641: Is higher than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 79% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", slightly higher than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Sunnyside and Woodside, there are 17 bodegas . The nearest large hospitals in the area are the Elmhurst Hospital Center in Elmhurst and the Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens in Astoria . Sunnyside
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#17330938719641694-805: Is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are middle-aged adults and youth: 17% are between the ages of 0–17, 39% between 25–44, and 24% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 8% and 12% respectively. As of 2017, the median household income in Community Board 2 was $ 67,359. In 2018, an estimated 20% of Sunnyside and Woodside residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty residents (5%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or
1771-421: Is important because it sets limits on human possibilities, limits that are aligned with the nature of the human body. Mumford never forgot the importance of air quality, of food availability, of the quality of water, or the comfort of spaces, because all these elements had to be respected if people were to thrive. Technology and progress could never become a runaway train in his reasoning, so long as organic humanism
1848-417: Is less than the rest of New York City. In Sunnyside and Woodside, 11% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year , lower than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 86% of high school students in Sunnyside and Woodside graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%. Sunnyside contains the following public schools in both District 30 and 24. Queens Blvd serves as
1925-409: Is what those individuals in pursuit of biotechnics would do as well. Mumford's critique of the city and his vision of cities that are organized around the nature of human bodies, so essential to all Mumford's work on city life and urban design, is rooted in an incipient notion of biotechnics: "livability," a notion which Mumford got from his mentor, Patrick Geddes . Mumford used the term biotechnics in
2002-777: The College Art Association . Mumford received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. In 1975 Mumford was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). In 1976, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca . In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts . He served as the architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine for over 30 years. His 1961 book, The City in History , received
2079-489: The Greek tekhne , which means not only technology but also art, skill, and dexterity, technics refers to the interplay of social milieu and technological innovation—the "wishes, habits, ideas, goals" as well as "industrial processes" of a society. As Mumford writes at the beginning of Technics and Civilization , "other civilizations reached a high degree of technical proficiency without, apparently, being profoundly influenced by
2156-518: The National Book Award . Lewis Mumford died at the age of 94 at his home in Amenia, New York , on January 26, 1990. Nine years later the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . His wife Sophia died in 1997, at age 97. In his book The Condition of Man , published in 1944, Mumford characterized his orientation toward the study of humanity as "organic humanism." The term
2233-636: The National Register of Historic Places . The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has also designated it as an official city landmark district. Sunnyside Gardens was built between 1924 and 1928, roughly taking up 16 blocks, with more than 600 buildings. It has 12 courts, which are known as Carolin Gardens, Colonial Court, Hamilton Court, Hamilton Court Apartments, Harrison Place, Jefferson Court, Lincoln Court, Madison Court North and South, Monroe Court Apartments, Phipps Garden Apartments I, Phipps Garden Apartments II, Roosevelt Court, Washington Court, and
2310-553: The Navy to serve in World War I and was assigned as a radio electrician. He was discharged in 1919 and became associate editor of The Dial , an influential modernist literary journal. He later worked for The New Yorker where he wrote architectural criticism and commentary on urban issues. Mumford's earliest books in the field of literary criticism have had a lasting influence on contemporary American literary criticism. His first book
2387-933: The New York City Council 's 26th District. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census , the population of Sunnyside was 63,271, a change of 1,324 (2.1%) from the 61,947 counted in 2000 . Covering an area of 2,340.44 acres (947.14 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 27 inhabitants per acre (17,000/sq mi; 6,700/km ). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 35.4% (22,424) non-Hispanic White , 2.5% (1,588) African American , 0.2% (109) Native American , 24.3% (15,390) Asian , 0%(29) Pacific Islander , 0.6% (395) other races , 2.1% (1,342) two or more races, and 34.8% (21,994) Hispanic or Latino of any race. The entirety of Community Board 2, which comprises Sunnyside and Woodside, had 135,972 inhabitants as of NYC Health 's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.4 years. This
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2464-673: The Second Industrial Revolution . His early architectural criticism helped to bring wider public recognition to the work of Henry Hobson Richardson , Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright . Mumford was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1941 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1947. In 1963, Mumford received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from
2541-536: The Sunnyside Railroad Yards , Sunnyside Gardens was constructed between 1924 and 1928 by the City Housing Corporation , founded by developer Alexander Bing , and architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright. The project grew out of discussions in the early 1920s about housing and planning; social critic Lewis Mumford and economist Richard T. Ely were leading participants. In the early years of
2618-544: The assembly line , or instant, global, wireless , communication and remote control , can easily weaken the perennial psychological barriers to certain types of questionable actions. An example which he uses is that of Adolf Eichmann , the Nazi official who organized logistics in support of the Holocaust . Mumford collectively refers to people willing to carry out placidly the extreme goals of these megamachines as "Eichmanns". One of
2695-456: The 108th Precinct of the NYPD , located at 5-47 50th Avenue. The 108th Precinct ranked 25th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. As of 2018 , with a non-fatal assault rate of 19 per 100,000 people, Sunnyside and Woodside's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 163 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as
2772-435: The 1960s on topics including Herman Melville , psychology, American values and culture, and the nature of the self. In his early writings on life in an urban area , Mumford was optimistic about human abilities and wrote, that the human race would use electricity and mass communication to build a better world for all humankind. Mumford later took a more pessimistic stance on the sweeping technological improvements brought by
2849-724: The 1970s. In the years before World War II New York Giants star Hap Moran coached a youth football team, the Mustangs, in Sunnyside Park. Legendary jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke died at 43–30 46th Street in Sunnyside, and a plaque was erected in his honor by the Greater Astoria Historical Society . Notable films shot in the area include: 40°44′35″N 73°55′12″W / 40.743°N 73.920°W / 40.743; -73.920 Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (19 October 1895 – 26 January 1990)
2926-619: The British sociologist Victor Branford . Mumford was also a contemporary and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright , Clarence Stein , Frederic Osborn , Edmund N. Bacon , and Vannevar Bush . Mumford was born in Flushing , Queens , New York, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1912. He studied at the City College of New York and The New School for Social Research , but became ill with tuberculosis and never finished his degree. In 1918 he joined
3003-529: The Great Depression, nearly 60 percent of the residents lost their homes to foreclosure. Those difficult years saw organized resistance by residents who forcefully resisted efforts by city marshals to evict families. The character of Sunnyside Gardens was protected by 40-year easements which protected the integrity of the courtyards and common walkways and controlled changes to the exterior of every property, extending to even paint color. Those covenants lapsed in
3080-456: The NYCLPC voted to designate the community. The designation prevents most major work from being done without consultation with the NYCLPC. Sunnyside, Queens Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens . It shares borders with Hunters Point and Long Island City to the west, Astoria to the north, Woodside to the east and Maspeth to
3157-500: The Wilson Court. Sunnyside Gardens is in the northwestern part of Queens. Clarence Stein and Henry Wright served as the primary architects and planners for this development ( Frederick L. Ackerman designed some of the mews houses), and the landscape architect was Marjorie Sewell Cautley . Sunnyside Gardens includes one-, two-, and three-family homes, and a few apartment buildings, all made of Hudson brick. Each private residence has
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3234-687: The beginning of another one: the possible revolution that gives rise to a biotechnic society, a quiet revolution, for Mumford, one that would arise from the biotechnic consciousness and actions of individuals. Mumford was an avid reader of Alfred North Whitehead 's philosophy of the organism. A key idea, introduced in Technics and Civilization (1934) was that technology was twofold: Mumford commonly criticized modern America's transportation networks as being "monotechnic" in their reliance on cars. Automobiles become obstacles for other modes of transportation, such as walking , bicycle and public transit , because
3311-487: The better-known studies of Mumford is of the way the mechanical clock was developed by monks in the Middle Ages and subsequently adopted by the rest of society. He viewed this device as the key invention of the whole Industrial Revolution , contrary to the common view of the steam engine holding the prime position, writing: "The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age. ... The clock ...
3388-615: The border between the two districts. : The Queens Public Library 's Sunnyside branch is located at 43-06 Greenpoint Avenue. There are numerous churches and temples in Sunnyside that support its diverse religious communities. Parks in the area include: Sunnyside is served by the 7 train on the New York City Subway 's IRT Flushing Line , with 33rd Street–Rawson Street , 40th Street–Lowery Street , and 46th Street–Bliss Street in Sunnyside. The Q32 , Q39 , Q60 , Q104 , B24 buses run through Sunnyside. The area
3465-410: The crises facing urban culture, distrustful of the growing finance industry, political structures, fearful that a local community culture was not being fostered by these institutions. Mumford feared "metropolitan finance," urbanization, politics, and alienation . Mumford wrote: "The physical design of cities and their economic functions are secondary to their relationship to the natural environment and to
3542-517: The example of the medieval city as the basis for the "ideal city," and claims that the modern city is too close to the Roman city (the sprawling megalopolis) which ended in collapse; if the modern city carries on in the same vein, Mumford argues, then it will meet the same fate as the Roman city. Mumford wrote critically of urban culture believing the city is "a product of earth ... a fact of nature ... man's method of expression." Further, Mumford recognized
3619-698: The examples of the Soviet and United States power complexes represented by the Kremlin and the Pentagon , respectively. The builders of the pyramids , the Roman Empire and the armies of the World Wars are prior examples. He explains that meticulous attention to accounting and standardization, and elevation of military leaders to divine status, are spontaneous features of megamachines throughout history. He cites such examples as
3696-447: The introduction of new technical innovation. In Mumford's words, a biotechnic society would direct itself toward "qualitative richness, amplitude, spaciousness, and freedom from quantitative pressures and crowding. Self-regulation, self-correction, and self-propulsion are as much an integral property of organisms as nutrition, reproduction, growth, and repair." The biotechnic society would pursue balance, wholeness, and completeness; and this
3773-472: The later sections of The Pentagon of Power , written in 1970. The term sits well alongside his early characterization of "organic humanism," in that biotechnics represent the concrete form of technique that appeals to an organic humanist. When Mumford described biotechnics, automotive and industrial pollution had become dominant technological concerns, along with the fear of nuclear annihilation. Mumford recognized, however, that technology had even earlier produced
3850-884: The methods and aims of technics." In The Myth of the Machine Vol II: The Pentagon of Power (Chapter 12) (1970), Mumford criticizes the modern trend of technology , which emphasizes constant, unrestricted expansion, production, and replacement. He contends that these goals work against technical perfection, durability, social efficiency, and overall human satisfaction. Modern technology, which he called "megatechnics," fails to produce lasting, quality products by using devices such as consumer credit , installment buying , non-functioning and defective designs, planned obsolescence , and frequent superficial "fashion" changes . "Without constant enticement by advertising," he writes, "production would slow down and level off to normal replacement demand. Otherwise many products could reach
3927-629: The mid-1960s, and some homeowners rushed to claim their property, erecting fences into the middle of some courtyards. In response, in 1974 the Department of City Planning designated Sunnyside Gardens a special planned community preservation district, together with Fresh Meadows , Parkchester , and the Harlem River Houses . With that designation came rules protecting the inner courts and landscaping, and prohibiting driveways and curbcuts, rear sheds, and additions. The Sunnyside Gardens Historic District
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#17330938719644004-433: The myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges, as soon as we choose to walk out." Mumford believed that the biotechnic society was a desideratum—one that should guide his contemporaries as they walked out the doors of their megatechnic confines (he also calls them "coffins"). Thus he ends his narrative, as he well understood, at
4081-490: The needs of the species that created them. He believed that biotechnics was the emerging answer and the only hope that could be set out against the problem of megatechnics. It was an answer, he believed, that was already beginning to assert itself in his time. It is true that Mumford's writing privileges the term "biotechnics" more than the "biotechnic society." The reason is clear in the last sentence of The Pentagon of Power where he writes, "for those of us who have thrown off
4158-524: The nephew of Adolf Hitler , lived in Sunnyside for a brief period of time before leaving for the U.S. Navy in 1944. Former pro wrestler Chris Kanyon came from Sunnyside, as did New York City police commissioner Dermot F. Shea . Anthropologist, philosopher, and UC Berkeley professor Paul Rabinow grew up in the neighborhood. Additionally, several other people have been involved with Sunnyside's history. The Queens-grown punk rock group The Ramones played some of their earliest gigs in Sunnyside pubs during
4235-1035: The percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 51% in Sunnyside and Woodside, about equal to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018 , Sunnyside and Woodside is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying . Queens is one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in the world. Sunnyside's residents are also ethnically diverse and include people of Albanian , Algerian , Argentine , Armenian , Bangladeshi , Bosnian , Bulgarian , Burmese , Chinese , Colombian , Dominican , Ecuadorian , Egyptian , Filipino , French , German , Greek , Hungarian , Indian , Iraqi , Irish , Israeli , Italian , Japanese , Korean , Lebanese , Mexican , Moroccan , Nepali , Nicaraguan , Pakistani , Paraguayan , Peruvian , Polish , Puerto Rican , Romanian , Russian , Salvadoran , Thai , Tibetan , Tunisian , Turkish , Ukrainian , Vietnamese and Yemeni ancestry. Sunnyside has
4312-555: The period that would be destroyed by the late-19th-century social changes wrought by the American Civil War and industrialization of the United States. Herman Melville (1929), which combined an account of Melville's life with an interpretive discussion of his work, was an important part of the Melville revival . Mumford was a close friend of the psychologist Henry Murray , with whom he corresponded extensively from 1928 until
4389-452: The pursuit of technological advance would also be limited by its potentially negative effects upon the organism. Thus, in a biotechnic society, the quality of air, the quality of food, the quality of water, these would all be significant concerns that could limit any technological ambitions threatening to them. The anticipated negative value of noise, radiation, smog, noxious chemicals, and other technical by-products would significantly constrain
4466-551: The repetitive nature of Egyptian paintings which feature enlarged pharaohs and public display of enlarged portraits of Communist leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin . He also cites the overwhelming prevalence of quantitative accounting records among surviving historical fragments, from ancient Egypt to Nazi Germany . Necessary to the construction of these megamachines is an enormous bureaucracy of humans which act as "servo-units", working without ethical involvement. According to Mumford, technological improvements such as
4543-672: The residents, the City Housing Corporation reserved lots on the northern edge of the development (abutting the Sunnyside Yard) for one of only two private parks in the city, the other being Gramercy Park . The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the first decades of the twentieth century by Ebenezer Howard and Raymond Unwin , specifically Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City . Covering 77 acres between Queens Boulevard and
4620-831: The roads they use consume so much space and are such a danger to people. Mumford explains that the thousands of maimed and dead each year as a result of automobile accidents are a ritual sacrifice the American society makes because of its extreme reliance on highway transport. Also discussed at length in Technics and Civilization is Mumford's division of human civilization into three distinct epochs (following concepts originated by Patrick Geddes): Mumford also refers to large hierarchical organizations as megamachines —a machine using humans as its components. These organizations characterize Mumford's stage theory of civilization. The most recent megamachine manifests itself, according to Mumford, in modern technocratic nuclear powers —Mumford used
4697-553: The south. It contains the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District , one of the first planned communities in the United States. The name "Sunnyside" originates with the Bragaw family, French Huguenots who had purchased the land in 1713 and named their estate "Sunnyside Hill". Sunnyside was a rural hamlet mostly consisting of small farms and marshland. It was incorporated into Long Island City in 1870, and developed into
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#17330938719644774-408: The spiritual values of human community." Suburbia did not escape Mumford's criticism either: In the suburb one might live and die without marring the image of an innocent world, except when some shadow of evil fell over a column in the newspaper. Thus the suburb served as an asylum for the preservation of illusion. Here domesticity could prosper, oblivious of the pervasive regimentation beyond. This
4851-427: The state of its environment. In Mumford's mind, the society organized around biotechnics would restrain its technology for the sake of that integral relationship. In Mumford's understanding, the various technologies that arose in the megatechnic context have brought unintended and harmful side effects along with the obvious benefits they have bequeathed to us. He points out, for example, that the development of money (as
4928-447: The technology, not the natural environment, would ultimately shape the nature of humankind, a possibility that Mumford recognized, but only as a nightmare scenario. Mumford believed that what defined humanity, what set human beings apart from other animals, was not primarily our use of tools (technology) but our use of language (symbols). He was convinced that the sharing of information and ideas amongst participants of primitive societies
5005-448: The use of technology. Mumford also had an influence on the American environmental movement, with thinkers like Barry Commoner and Bookchin being influenced by his ideas on cities, ecology and technology. Ramachandra Guha noted his work contains "some of the earliest and finest thinking on bioregionalism , anti-nuclearism, biodiversity , alternate energy paths, ecological urban planning and appropriate technology." Mumford's influence
5082-430: Was The Story of Utopias (1922), an insightful exploration of the many visions of a better world that influenced the development of modern urban planning theory. In The Golden Day (1926), he argued for a mid-19th-century American literary canon comprising Herman Melville , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau , Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman , all of whom he argued reflected an antebellum American culture of
5159-446: Was an American historian, sociologist , philosopher of technology , and literary critic . Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer. He made significant contributions to social philosophy , American literary and cultural history, and the history of technology . Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes and worked closely with his associate
5236-415: Was completely natural to early humanity, and had obviously been the foundation of society as it became more sophisticated and complex. He had hopes for a continuation of this process of information "pooling" in the world as humanity moved into the future. Mumford's choice of the word "technics" throughout his work was deliberate. For Mumford, technology is one part of technics. Using the broader definition of
5313-401: Was constructed between 1924 and 1928 by the City Housing Corporation , founded by developer Alexander Bing , and architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright . The project grew out of discussions in the early 1920s about housing and planning; Lewis Mumford was a leading participant. It is among the first planned communities in the U.S. Sunnyside Gardens is listed as a historic district on
5390-573: Was contentious and garnered publicity in major news outlets, including WNYC and the New York Times. On April 17, 2007, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (NYCLPC) held a public hearing on the neighborhood, which was controversial, with 60 people speaking in favor and 25 against the designation. This was documented on New York Public Radio in a segment called "Cloud Over Sunnyside?". On June 26, 2007,
5467-524: Was deeply concerned with the relationship between techniques and bioviability. The latter term, not used by Mumford, characterizes an area's capability to support life. Before the advent of technology, most areas of the planet were bioviable at some level or other; however, where certain forms of technology advance rapidly, bioviability decreases dramatically. Slag heaps, poisoned waters, parking lots, and concrete cities, for example, are extremely limited in terms of their bioviability. Mumford did not believe it
5544-422: Was designated a common, landscaped but not used for recreation. Each homeowner actually owned, and paid taxes on, the part of the common in the block and lot, even if it was not used. The mews houses face a common front court and back on alleys; each mews house also has a private rear yard. This model allowed for denser residential development, while also providing ample open/green-space amenities. As an amenity for
5621-457: Was less given to abstract hoarding would be more suitable to a biotechnic conception of living. Thus, Mumford argued that the biotechnic society would not hold to the megatechnic delusion that technology must expand unceasingly, magnifying its own power and would shatter that delusion in order to create and preserve "livability." Rather than the megatechnic pursuit of power, the biotechnic society would pursue what Mumford calls "plenitude"; that is,
5698-432: Was necessary for bioviability to collapse as technology advanced, however, because he held it was possible to create technologies that functioned in an ecologically responsible manner, and he called that sort of technology biotechnics. Mumford believed that biotechnic consciousness (and possibly even community) was emerging as a later stage in the evolution of Darwinian thinking about the nature of human life. He believed this
5775-416: Was not merely a child-centered environment; it was based on a childish view of the world, in which reality was sacrificed to the pleasure principle. Mumford is also among the first urban planning scholars who paid serious attention to religion in the planning field. In one of his least well-known books, Faith for Living (1940), Mumford argues: The segregation of the spiritual life from the practical life
5852-418: Was the sort of technology needed to shake off the suicidal drive of "megatechnics." While Mumford recognized an ecological consciousness that traces back to the earliest communities, he regarded emerging biotechnics as a product of neo-Darwinian consciousness, as a post-industrial form of thinking, one that refuses to look away from the mutually-influencing relationship between the state of the living organism and
5929-415: Was there to act as a brake. Indeed, Mumford considered the human brain from this perspective, characterizing it as hyperactive, a good thing in that it allowed humanity to conquer many of nature's threats, but potentially a bad thing if it were not occupied in ways that stimulated it meaningfully. Mumford's respect for human "nature", that is to say, the natural characteristics of being human, provided him with
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