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Planning and Transportation Collections In both urban and suburban communities, planning and transportation are key elements in a community's success or failure. The documents used to design, build, and study urban and suburban systems help us understand how they thrive or fail to do so, and offer lessons for future planners. SC&A actively collects materials pertaining to town and city planning and transportation modes and planning. Planned Community Archives Planned Community Archives is a multi-series collection which details planned communities or "new towns". The collection was originally placed on deposit at George Mason University Libraries by Planned Community Archives Inc. in 1986, and was permanently transferred to the Libraries in 2006. The materials which comprise the Planned Community Archives Collection contain information on many planned communities in the United States, though collection emphasis has focused mainly on the planned community of Reston, Virginia. The collection also contains much information on Russian, French, and Israeli new towns and planned communities of other nations. The collection documents the efforts of institutions, organizations,and individuals to develop new planned communities and to improve existing communities. Institutions and corporations that have contributed to the collection include Mobil Land Development Corp; Chevron, Inc.; WETA-TV; and Warner Cable Communications of Reston. Contributing organizations include the Reston Governance Task Force. The Planned Community Archives Collection is housed in Special Collections & Archives in George Mason University's Fenwick Library, where it is available to scholars, teachers, students, practitioners, and members of the public. PCA contains information in a variety of formats gathered from a diverse group of individuals, organizations, corporations and government agencies. Included are numerous manuscripts, published books, government documents, flyers and ephemera, video and audio recordings, newspapers, journals, photographs, architectural drawings and plans, maps, and engineering reports. Manuscript materials include correspondence, memoirs, lectures, reports, and minutes. Planned Community Archives Finding Aid Planned Community Archives: Catherine Baum Digital Collection Francis C. Steinbauer Reston Development and Planning Collection Francis C. Steinbauer was a key participant in the development of Reston through the first twenty years of its growth as a major new community in Northern Virginia.Collection contains materials pertaining to Reston history and development: photographs, sales information and manuals, master plans, reports, memoranda, and realia. Charles A Veatch Papers A real estate development consultant, Veatch
developed many residential and commercial projects throughout Northern Virginia. The
Charles Veatch Collection contains working papers and other documents, newspaper
clippings, brochures, maps, videorecordings, and books. Virginians for Dulles Records A citizen action group seeking to reroute airline traffic in the interest of ecology and safety from Washington National Airport to Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County, Virginia. The collection contains minutes meeting agenda, correspondence between board members, financial and other administrative documents of the organization. David Pass Papers The David Pass papers contain correspondence, oral histories, research files, photographs, maps, and plans that document the development and study of new towns in the United States and internationally, particularly Sweden. The collection thoroughly documents Pass's career at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, the Urban Development Corporation in New York, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. Although the inclusive dates span from 1934 to 2001, the bulk of the collection dates from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Edgar A. Pritchard Papers - The papers include correspondence, legal, finance and other papers relating to Reston and Prichard's dealings with the Palindrome Corporation and Gulf Reston Incorporated. Transportation Collections The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Records APTA was created in 1974 with the merging of two major American transit-related organizations, the American Transit Association (ATA) and the Institute for Rapid Transit (IRT). Both organizations trace their histories back decades before this date. The ATA, which originated in 1932, specialized in issues dealing with motor buses, trolley coaches and other motorized transit vehicles. The IRT, organized in 1961, specialized in electric railways and other rapid transit sources. In January 2000, the name of the organization was changed to the American Public Transportation Association. Today, APTA is a leading participant in research and legislation regarding the American transportation industry and issues relating to it. Total volume of the APTA collection is 80 cubic feet or 120 linear feet. Thomas B. Deen (1928- ) is a well-known name in the field of transportation research. Early in his career, Deen was a pioneer in the development and application of methods for analyzing urban transportation problems and designing urban transit systems. These computer-based analytical methods were used to evaluate and select the lines that today make up the Washington, D.C. Metrorail system. Deen served as Director of Planning for the National Capital Transportation Agency from 1960 to1964, and Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) from 1980 to 1994. At the TRB Deen supervised policy studies on critical national transportation issues, such as the 55 mph speed limit, school bus safety, air passenger service and safety since deregulation, and high-speed rail. Collection contains materials related to Deen's work with the TRB from 1980 to 1993. Types of materials include speeches, working papers, reports, memoranda, correspondence, conference materials, and meetng notes. Total volume of the Deen Collection is 19 cubic feet or 28.5 linear feet. James J. McDonnell (1930-1995) was a 33-year employee of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) and its successor, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). During his career with U.S. government transportation agencies, McDonnell was recognized as a national expert in transportation data collection and use. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he directed the Shirley Highway corridor study in Northern Virginia. His study led to the widening of the four-lane, World War II-era freeway into the first freeway with reversible high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes in the median. In 1964, McDonnell was called back to Washington to fill a key vacancy as Chief of BPR’s Planning Procedure Branch. During his 20-year tenure in this position, he became nationally recognized for his many accomplishments, one of which was the development of a new Home Interview Survey Manual, that brought the practice of conducting surveys, and analyzing results into the computer age. The McDonnell Collection contains materials related to McDonnell's work on the Shirley Highway project and other materials from his work at the BPR and FHWA. Types of materials include correspondence, reports, government publication, black-and-white photographs, and 35mm black-and-white negatives. Total volume of the McDonnell Collection is 6.5 cubic feet or 9.75 linear feet. William L. Mertz Transportation Collection Mertz (1920-1993), a former Federal Highway Administration Administrator, played a leading role in developing and planning the Interstate Highway System the United States. Mertz started his career as a highway engineer with the Bureau of Public Roads in the Department of Commerce. During the 1960s he worked with such groups as the National Capital Transit Agency in Washington, D.C. and the Tri-State Transportation Commission in New York. He also served as an administrator in the planning of the Interstate Highway System, including the Beltway and I-95 in Maryland and the Washington Metrorail System. The collection contains transportation-related materials collected over a forty-five year period by Mertz. Types of materials include scholarly journal articles dealing with transportation topics, summaries of congressional acts relating to transportation, official reports and studies of transportation agencies, summaries of speeches given by transportation officials, and personal correspondence between transportation offficials. Total volume of the Mertz Collection is 10.3 cubic feet or 12 linear feet. Other collections in SC&A which contain transportation materials include: Jonathan Gifford Transportation Collection
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