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Heritage Sites

New US National Historic Landmarks -
Radburn and Chathan Village

Two sites of international planning history Significance have been designated National Historic Landmarks by the United States National Park Service. Radburn and Chatham Village were two of 24 new sites announced by Interior Secretary Norton on 7 April 2005.

National Historic Landmarks (NHL) are recognized by the US Secretary of the Interior as nationally significant properties of exceptional value in representing or illustrating an important theme, event, or person in the history of the Nation. All National Historic Landmarks are included in the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the cultural resources and historic properties worthy of preservation. The Historic Sites Act of 1935 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to recognize historic places judged to have exceptional value to the nation.

Additional information on the National Historic Landmark program can be found on the NPS website at www.nps.gov

Radburn, Borough of Fair Lawn, New Jersey (1928-1936):

This community embodies the internationally acclaimed model of community design known as the "Radburn Idea," was designed in 1928-1929 by the planner-architects Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright. Known as "The Town for the Motor Age," Radburn's design principles have influenced generations of community planning, including the three Greenbelt towns of the New Deal, many Federal Housing Administration-insured large-scale rental communities of the 1930s to 1950s, and new towns of the 1960s. Radburn was the product of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) with the goal to promote social reform and improvement in the housing of moderate income Americans based on the principles of English Garden City planning.

Chatham Village, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1929-1956):

Internationally acclaimed model of community design based on Garden City planning, innovative methods of cost analysis, and pioneering efforts to reduce housing construction costs. Designed by local architects under the supervision of master planner-architects Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright, as a philanthropic project by the Buhl Foundation to provide high-quality housing in a suburban, garden setting for clerical workers in Pittsburgh, PA. Building upon earlier work at Sunnyside Gardens, New York, and Radburn, New Jersey, Chatham Village is one of the most celebrated and influential projects to result from Stein and Wright's highly creative, ten-year collaboration and the efforts of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) to promote social reform and improvement in the housing of moderate income Americans in metropolitan areas of the United States. Immediately acclaimed as an ideal demonstration of neighborhood planning and cost-efficient housing, Chatham Village influenced the development of design standards used by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to approve large-scale, rental housing in suburban areas for federally-insured mortgages. It helped to shape the design and construction of the first federally-funded public housing projects under the Public Works Administration in the 1930s.