Diagram of an example of a rectangular city block as seen from above, surrounded by streets. The block is divided into lots which were numbered by the developer as shown in red here and as shown in plats. A plat consists of a Map, drawn to scale showing the divisions of a piece of land The addresses on this example 800 block are shown in black and the adjacent blocks are the 700 and 900 blocks. An alley shown in light gray runs lengthwise down the middle of the block. Streets are shown in dark gray. Sidewalks are shown in light gray. A sidewalk (chiefly North American English) pavement ( British English and Philadelphia dialect) footpath ( Australian English Parkways are shown in green with walkways shown in light gray from every lot to the street. In the United States, Parkways are defined as follows A type of road A broad landscaped thoroughfare especially: one from which trucks and A walkway is a composite or umbrella term for all formal surfaces supporting walking

Chicago in 1857. Blocks of 80, 40, and 10 acres establish a street grid at the outskirts which continues into the more finely divided downtown area.

A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. Urban design concerns the arrangement appearance and functionality of towns and cities and in particular the shaping and uses of urban Public space. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. A street is a Public thoroughfare in the built environment It is a Public parcel of land adjoining Buildings in an urban context City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric. City blocks may be subdivided into any number of smaller lots or parcels of land usually in private ownership, though in some cases, it may be other forms of tenure. In Real estate, a lot is a tract or parcel of Land owned or meant to be owned by some Owner (s City blocks are usually built-up to varying degrees and thus form the physical containers or 'streetwalls' of public space. Most cities are composed of a greater or lesser variety of sizes and shapes of urban block. For example, many pre-industrial cores of cities in Europe, Asia and the Middle-east tend to have irregularly shaped street patterns and urban blocks, while cities based on grids have much more regular arrangements.

Grid plan

In most cities of the world that were planned, rather than developing gradually over a long period of time, streets are typically laid out on a grid plan, so that city blocks are square or rectangular. The grid plan or gridiron plan is a type of City plan in which Streets run at right angles to each other forming a grid. Using the perimeter block development principle, city blocks are developed so that buildings are located along the perimeter of the block, with entrances facing the street, and semi-private courtyards in the rear of the buildings. In Architecture, Construction, Engineering and real estate development the word building may refer to one of the following Any man-made A street is a Public thoroughfare in the built environment It is a Public parcel of land adjoining Buildings in an urban context For alternative meanings of the word "court" see Court (disambiguation. ^[1] This arrangement is intended to provide good social interaction among people. Social interaction is a dynamic changing sequence of Social actions between individuals (or groups who modify their actions and reactions according to the actions by their ^[1]

Since the spacing of streets in grid plans varies so widely among cities, or even within cities, it is impossible to generalize about the size of a city block. However, as reference points, the standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m); and in some U. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York State Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between S. cities standard blocks are as wide as 660 feet (200 m). While for example, the city blocks in the central city grid of Melbourne, Australia are 200 by 100 metres (660 ft × 330 ft). Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3

In most areas, cities have grown in a more amorphous manner rather than being planned from the outset. For this reason, an even pattern of square or rectangular city blocks is very uncommon in much of Europe. Following the example of Philadelphia, New York City adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for a more extensive grid plan. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York State Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between The grid plan or gridiron plan is a type of City plan in which Streets run at right angles to each other forming a grid. In much of the United States and Canada, the addressing systems follow a block and lot number system, in which each block of a street is allotted 100 building numbers. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page An address is a Code and abstract concept expressing the fixed location of a home business or other building on the earth's surface House numbering is the system of giving a unique Number to each Building in a Street or Area, with the intention of making it easier to locate

Superblock

Superblocks were popular during the early and mid-20th century, arising from modernist ideas in architecture and urban planning. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century A superblock is much larger than a traditional city block, with greater setback for buildings, and is typically bounded by widely spaced, high-speed, arterial or circulating routes rather than by local streets. Superblocks are generally associated with suburbs, planned cities, and the urban renewal of the mid-20th century; that is, in areas in which a street hierarchy has replaced the traditional grid. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. A new town, planned community or planned city is a City, Town, or Community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically Urban Renewal (similar to Urban Regeneration in British English) is a controversial U The street hierarchy is an Urban design technique for separating automobile through-traffic from developed areas In a residential area of a suburb, the interior of the superblock is typically served by cul-de-sac roads. "Dead End Street" redirects here For the song by The Kinks see Dead End Street (song.

Urban planner Clarence Perry argued for use of superblocks and related ideas in his "neighborhood unit" plan, which aimed to organize space in a way that is more pedestrian-friendly and provided open plazas and other space for residents to socialize. A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot whether Walking or Running. Plaza ( / latin america) is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban Public space, such as a City square. ^[2] In the 1930s, superblocks were often used in urban renewal public housing projects in American cities. Public housing is a form of Housing tenure in which the property is owned by a Government authority which may be central or local ^[3] In using superblocks, housing projects aimed to eliminate back alleys, which were often associated with slum conditions. An alley or alleyway is a narrow pedestrian Lane found in urban areas which usually run between or behind buildings A slum, as defined by the United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security ^[3]

Superblocks are also used when functional units such as rail yards or housing projects are too big to fit in one block. A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of Railroad tracks for storing sorting or loading/unloading Railroad cars and/or Locomotives Public housing is a form of Housing tenure in which the property is owned by a Government authority which may be central or local

Perimeter block

A perimeter block is a type of city block which is built up on all sides surrounding a central space that is semi-private. They are usually between 4 and 7 storeys in height, and may contain a mixture of uses, with commercial or retail functions on the ground floor. Perimeter blocks are a key component of many European cities and are an urban form that allows very high urban densities to be achieved without high-rise buildings. Urban density is a term used in Urban planning and Urban design to refer to the number of people inhabiting a given urbanized area

See also

• Census block
• Minkowski space - One type of Minkowski space is sometimes known as "city-block space", with distance measured as Manhattan distance
• Mixed-use development
• Urban design
• Urban planning
• Mile Road System of Metro Detroit Region

References

Further reading

• Jacobs, J (1961) The death and life of great American cities