Finds urban governance impacts infrastructure planning in communities, suggesting a need for local leadership.
Since the 1960s, Philadelphia has been central to planning the nation’s Bicentennial Commemoration of 1976. The plans of city and national planning bodies, like the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) and the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA), aimed to improve urban conditions amid high crime, riots, economic decline, and inflation. The ARBA’s efforts framed national multiculturalism as a tool to counter growing polarization and help communities assert their agencies. Yet multiculturalism prioritized cultural identities over shared citizenship and overlooked persistent social issues. This paper shifts the focus from institutional planning to local governance in shaping Bicentennial projects. It emphasizes neighbourhood organization initiatives in Philadelphia’s historic districts, opposing infrastructural projects like the Crosstown Expressway and preventing them from destroying South Street neighbourhoods. Planners and community leaders, including Denise Scott Brown, Alice Lipscomb, and Janet Scheff Reiner, prioritized the protection of local heritage. Additionally, Scott Brown showed her commitment to community-focused architecture by collaborating with Philadelphia-based architect Louis Kahn on a visionary, human-centred proposal for the international exposition. This paper shows how infrastructure development and neighbourhood governance intersected during a period of significant urban restructuring, demonstrating the role of community leadership in shaping the city’s Bicentennial legacy.
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May Khalife (2026) studied this question.
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