Hitchcock LECTURE SERIES

Cities in Civilization: Culture, Innovation and Urban Order

Sir Peter Hall, Chair of Planning, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College, London

April 11, 2000
International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley

About Sir Peter Hall

Sir Peter Geoffrey Hall is the Chair of Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning at University College, London. Knighted in 1998 for his intellectual contributions, Hall is the only urban planner in the last fifty years to have such an honor bestowed. His writings total nearly thirty authored and edited books and include studies of American-style suburbanization in Europe, planning disasters, and economic development issues. Most recently, Hall examined the great cities of history in Cities in Civilization: Culture, Technology, and Urban Order (1998), looking at creativity in cities as a reflection of developments in their cultures, civilizations, and political systems. In 1980, Hall came to Berkeley as a Professor of City and Regional Planning and served as Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development for the last four years of his tenure on campus. At Berkeley, he wrote about high technology in America, the geography of technological change, and an intellectual history of twentieth century urban planning and design. In addition to his writings, Hall has been a consultant for urban policymaking around the world, testifying to the U.S. Congress and advising Australia on metropolitan planning. He is considered the father of the industrial enterprise zone, adopted by countries worldwide to develop industry in disadvantaged areas. Among his numerous affiliations, Hall has been an adviser to British government departments, and remains a member of the Urban Task Force in the Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions. He was a founder and member of the Regional Studies Association and first editor of its journal. He is also a member of Germany's Weltkommission on The City in the 21st Century. He has been awarded the Gill Memorial Prize, the Adolph Bentinck Prize, as well as the 1991 George Stephenson Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers, London. Hall was born in 1932 in London, and attended the University of Cambridge. He received his bachelor, master, and Ph.D. degrees from St. Catherine's College of the University of Cambridge.