City Plan for Cincinnati

Israel Ludlow bought land from John Cleves Symmes and was the first surveyor and town planner in Cincinnati.

[2] In 1907 George Kessler, a nationally-known landscape architect, was hired to create a park plan for the city.

His plan, however, dealt not only with the 18 parks and 17 public squares/recreational areas contained in it, but, as historian Zane Miller wrote, it was "to inspire civic patriotism by encouraging the construction of monumental public and quasi-public buildings in an impressive downtown setting, to bring all the neighborhoods of the city closer together by improving cross-town and downtown commuter circulation, and to mitigate the problems of traffic congestion and children playing in the streets.

It was led by Alfred Bettman, a Cincinnati lawyer; Ladislas Segoe, an immigrant planner from Hungary; and George B. Ford and Ernest P. Goodrich, of New York, the owners of the first American planning consulting firm.

The plan was long range, seeking to reduce the influence of machine politicians on the city government.

Planned in the late 1990s, it includes two sports stadiums and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.