ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the formal composition and spatial configuration of two basic plan concepts that appear to lay at the heart of the American planning tradition. It also examines the 'ward plan' model of James Oglethorpe's design for Savannah, Georgia. The chapter argues that Savannah's 'ward plan represents a synthesis of these Roman and Spanish models in combination with the American tendency for elongated, rectangular blocks. An even number of blocks in one dimension tends to focus along the singular, most central cross-axis streets. The chapter provides an orthogonal grid to demonstrate how other factors of urban function can come into play during the process of growth to reinforce micro-scale spatial structure until the emergence of one at the macro-scale in a strongly geometric, highly ordered regular grid. It concludes by using space syntax to analyze the historical growth of the Nine Square Plan in New Haven from 1638 to 1852 and the Savannah ward plan from 1733 to 1856.
