City planning methods in colonial and post-Revolutionary America followed the European-inspired grid pattern of streets bisecting at right angles, a form made popular by William Penn in his pre-packaged city layout for Philadelphia in 1682. Most colonial cities of the era followed Penn's plan. A standard set by this style was the creation of parklike spaces designed for public recreation and, occasionally, marketplaces.
Savannah, Georgia, is considered a remarkable example of city planning that uses a more aesthetically appealing approach while facilitating traffic flow. Founded in 1733, Savannah was laid out by General James Edward Oglethorpe on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River approximately eighteen miles from the coast. What distinguishes this plan from previous ones is its repeated pattern of connected neighborhoods or wards consisting of picturesque squares amid grid street patterns with public spaces surrounded by private dwellings. The public squares were connected via main avenues laid out east to west from the banks of the Savannah River, with pedestrian and horse-powered traffic moving counterclockwise around each square. This design and the inclusion of Savannah's numerous public squares within its layout gave the city the distinction of having the most open space of any urban plan in colonial America.
The District of Columbia, which became the nation's capital in 1800, initially was one hundred square and swampy miles along the Potomac River donated by Maryland and Virginia. In 1791 Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825), a former engineer under General Marquis de Lafayette, won the commission to design the federal city in the District of Columbia after entering his plan in a competition. L'Enfant was difficult and short-tempered with the people surrounding him, and he was removed in 1792. Upon leaving, he took his plans along with him.
Following his resignation, Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) took over the surveying of the capital. Banneker, a talented African American mathematician, astronomer, and surveyor, had assisted L'Enfant. Banneker was able to reproduce most of L'Enfant's plan from memory.
The layout of Washington, D.C., is notable for its network of wide boulevards radiating like spokes from connecting focal points that were the sites of significant public buildings. Open spaces and a grid pattern of streets oriented along the cardinal points of the compass proved an efficient enough plan that it remains the standard by which contemporary proposals for Washington, D.C., land-use changes are considered.