Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada

Thank you to Victoria Kolankiewicz for drawing this to my attention. See it on google maps here. Its Wikipedia page, which barely touches on its design, is here.

‘The Kitimat development entails a water reservoir of 350 square miles, a power station of over two million horsepower, an aluminium smelter with the planned production capacity of 500,000 tons a year, and a new town with the ultimate population of 50,000. This gigantic development, undertaken by the Aluminium Company of Canada, is located in a wild, fjord-like, mountainous region about 400 miles north of Vancouver.

‘Kitimat is not a company town. Its plan, designed by Meyer, Whittlesey and Stein, shows approximately 12 residential neighboroods surrounding a clearly defined Town Center. The authors have defined the neighborhood as “an intergrated residential area having its own local facilities for daily shopping, leisure time activities and health, and having at least one elementary school.”

‘The designers used their experience with the American Green Belt Towns and, particularly, with Radburn, as evidenced by their use of the superblock. The superblock they describe as an area surrounded but not crossed by auto-mobile traffic arteries, having an internal park “core” or “greenway” with a system of pedestrian paths. In this green core are located the schools and the recreational areas. Paved paths and road underpasses connect the houses through green spaces to the focal Neighbourhood Centre.’

V. Joseph Kostka, Neighbourhood Planning Author published (Sponsored by the Appraisal Institute of Canada) Winnipeg 1957 p. 35