This book is devoted to planning Londonderry in Northern Ireland, written by a redoubtable person, formerly a vice-president and dean at Arizona State University, a dean at Illinois Institute of Technology, director of Architecture at Kansas University, and for years a practising architect/planner in Northern Ireland.

This book has relevance far beyond Ireland. There, it is a conflict between Protestant and Catholic; in the United States, the parallel is with race, black and white. There is no innocence here. The motivating theme has been retribution. Ireland shares the sorry distinction of contentiousness with Bosnia and Israel. The significance of the...

This is a book about a city and regional plan for the Londonderry area that was published in 1968. The plan itself was not without its critics, as is any plan, but in time it was generally accepted by the local population and has largely been implemented, although some important aspects await the resolution of the current peace process and the continuation of investment in the city centre. The plan was the work of a few dedicated people from the James Munce Partnership, a Belfast firm of architects and engineers. Four members of the planning team have passed on; other...

Little did we know in 1966 that as we planned for a new tomorrow, events would soon occur that would change the face of Northern Ireland and plunge the province into almost thirty years of civil unrest and violence and back into its dark past. To understand why this should occur the reader may need some background knowledge of Irish history. Many excellent books have been written on the subject, yet my introduction to the history of Ireland was from a small book by Randall Clarke, a history teacher at Methodist College Belfast which I attended from 1944 to 1949.¹...

I was enjoying my first visit to the United States and my first full-time stint as a teacher in the School of Architecture at theUniversity of Kansas when one morning in early February 1966, I got the long distance phone call. It was Jimmy Munce calling from the Belfast office of James Munce Partnership. His husky military-style accent with its slight English overtones sounded a trifle more excited than usual. ‘We’re going to be interviewed for a planning job in Londonderry,’ he said. ‘Can you fly back for a few days?’ I felt myself suddenly caught up in Jimmy’s excitement...

Numerous theories exist today on teamwork and team building. From a distance of thirty years, it seems to me that more than chance brought our small planning team together. Each one of us—and each of our consultants as well—turned out to be vital for the making of the Londonderry plan. The contribution of consultants proved to be essential in the successful outcome of the plan and the absence of even one of the participants, whether staff or consultant, would have greatly diminished the end result. Interestingly as it turned out, the backgrounds and philosophical outlook of everyone involved...

The city of Derry, or Londonderry as it was known at the time of the plan, is situated on the River Foyle at the neck of the Inishowen Peninsula, five miles south of the river’s confluence with the large sea inlet of Lough Foyle. While no precise records exist, it is known that people have settled in the area at least since the Bronze Age. In 1965 it had a population of around 56,000. By contrast the larger rural district had a population of about 25,000 and extended south-eastwards from the city in an isosceles triangular-like form for a distance...

We had spent the time from our appointment in March to our next meeting with the Steering Committee in June beginning the surveys necessary to prepare the plan. We had yet to determine if and how the planning process should be adapted to take account of a number of developments in the pipeline. The June meeting opened with the Chairman, Commander Anderson, forcefully reminding us once more that it was the Steering Committee that had been established to produce a plan for the area. Our role, as he saw it, was to serve as technical advisers. I was relieved that...

November and December passed and we entered 1967 with Bob and Jimmy still exploring ways of moving beyond the housing issue. Somehow we managed to keep our hopes and spirits alive as our knowledge of the area grew and the possibilities for future growth captured our imaginations. Perhaps, we reasoned, we had been too optimistic about our first report.

The location of new housing and the possible extension of the city boundary were controversial political issues for the Steering Committee, so why not present them with reports that were less so and leave the controversial issues to the end? I...

Creative people such as artists, inventors, engineers, and architects often become so absorbed in their work that it becomes a part of their persona. Any ridicule or even well-meant criticism of their work can be, for some, a personal affront, and their consequent defensive posturing often leads others to presume them arrogant—of course the same generalisation can be made about other professions, including doctors, lawyers, the rich, and persons in authority. In UK cities, up until the mid-seventies, the office of city surveyor carried with it considerable power in decision making, and even though the town clerk was the...

Putting the final plan together would be achieved in a matter of weeks because of the enormous amount of graphics produced by Mike Murray and his team and the availability of both this material and text from the reports. The team had worked day and night for over a year, sacrificing many weekends in the process as had all the team. Because of the nature of their work Mike’s group were inevitably at the end of the production line. This usually meant spending anything from two to four days with little or no sleep printing reports to ensure that the...

I have often reflected on my decision to leave the Munce Partnership, and while in the long run I had no reason to regret my decision, I realised that my people-participation model did not fit very well with the aggressive entrepreneurial goals of private practice. My planning qualifications had not been acquired without great cost to myself and my young family and I cherished the title of chartered planner. While my ethical standards might have been described as overly conservative at the time, Jimmy’s Nietzschean approach to practice sometimes left me unnerved. When we had finished the Derry plan Jimmy...

The Londonderry Development Commission was established in 1969 by the O’Neill Government as it tried to stave off the impending crisis brought about by years of discrimination against Catholics in employment and housing. Under New Town Legislation adapted from the British model, an existing town could be designated for expansion. As in the case of a new town, a government commission would be appointed to subsume the powers of existing local authorities and implement the plan. The commission would be kept in place until such time as the plan was implemented and the normal process of governance by a town...

‘Derry is a city in the hands of inspired leaders.’¹ The talent and energy of the many civic leaders of Derry is indeed incomparable and explains how this city, which has suffered so much, can reach beyond mere survival to embrace the future. Spanning just one generation John Hume, the consummate politician, and Phil Coulter, the composer and entertainer, have gained recognition far beyond their national and cultural boundaries. Their attachment to their native city is expressed by one in practical terms, while the other is inspired to express it in music. But there have been many others, perhaps not...

Edmund Tinney looked out of the window of a house near St Columb’s College and surveyed the acres of new housing that had engulfed the Ballyarnett/Shantallow area. He turned to his friend James Doherty. ‘James,’ he said, nodding towards the area, ‘do you remember when they told you that it would never happen and that this was all pie in the sky?’ By the mid 1970s, most housing anticipated in the Munce Plan for new greenfield sites was in various stages of completion. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive had quickly taken up the task from the Development Commission, and Derry’s...