ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I present sites as professional representations that bridge between an existing place and its transformation into a new place. For example, this occurs when an abandoned industrial area along a river is re-imagined as a residential area with a waterfront promenade. The area is presented as under-valued and needing environmental remediation but with the potential to become desirable for urban living. I explore the relationship between place and site through two examples: (1) Operation Breakthrough, an early 1970s program launched by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to redevelop under-used places through the deployment of modular building systems, and (2) the planning for the new capital city of Brasilia in the 1950s. I focus on how the places were stripped of their history, meaning, and value in order to justify them as development sites ripe to become new places.
