ReCalibrating the Grid

Using examples from the western United States, southeastern Australia, and the eastern frontier of the former Soviet Union, this essay considers the legacy and the potential of
that most fundamental of formal strategies for organizing territorial development—the large-scale grid.

Strategies for using the large-scale grid to organize the urbanizing areas south of downtown Tucson was demonstrated at a stakeholder workshop sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Recalibrating the Grid

Anthropocentric derivation of the mile-square grid: 40 "day works" (160 perches) = 1 acre, the land one man could cultivate in one day.
Anthropocentric derivation of the Soviet-era grid from the "sajev": dimension corresponding to a man with outstretched arms.
Tucson, Az: Early 20th Century subdivision of mile-square grid (left). Late 20th Century design imposed over mile-square grid (right).
Melbourne metro: Mid 20th cent. subdivision of mile-square grid (right). Late 20th cent. design imposed over mile-square grid (left).
Current plan for Tolyatti (Russia, above) extends microdistrict grid. Typical infill and subdivision (right) of a Soviet microdistrict.
Tucson complete neighborhood prototypes: complete grid (left), grid accommodates nature (center), grid gives way to nature.