American urban planner, sociologist, author and educator (1872-1944)
Clarence Perry, 1935
Clarence Arthur Perry (March 4, 1872 – September 6, 1944[1]) was an American urban planner, sociologist, author, and educator. Perry devised the neighbourhood unit plan, a residential community scheme disseminated through the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs in 1929 that influenced planning in US cities.[2]
Life
He was born in Truxton, New York. He later worked in the New York City planning department where he became a strong advocate of the neighborhood unit. He was an early promoter of neighborhood community and recreation centers.
As a staff member of the New York Regional Plan and the City Recreation Committee, Perry formulated his early ideas about the neighbourhood unit and community life. In 1909 he became associated with the Russell Sage Foundation as associate director of recreation until 1937. His ideas were realized in neighborhoods like Radburn[3] through the work of Clarence Stein.
He produced several books, many pamphlets and articles though is best remembered for his The Neighborhood Unit (The Neighbourhood Unit: From the Regional Survey of New York and Its Environs, Volume VII, Neighbourhood and Community Planning, 1929) and Housing for the Machine Age (1939).