Plan Piloto - Bogota - Le Corbusier en Bogotá

Sert, pilot plan for Cali. Wiener y Sert, «unidad vecinal», Plan Regulador, Bogotá.
Corbusier had realized that no good planning was possible
when real estate speculators took the lead in determining the
form of cities, and how he had «fought for the rehabilitation of
the role of the architect-planner as the coordinator of a team
of specialists». At the same time, he mentioned that it was
the specific «plastic expression» of Le Corbusier’s plans that
caused them to be criticized. More diagrammatic plans, «devised
by economists or sociologists... in which the final form of
the city is not disclosed», do not include architectural forms,
and this allows everyone «to imagine the new city built according
to his taste». Such plans, Sert asserted, perhaps thinking
here of the official Greater London plans, have consequently
often met with «greater public acceptance». Le Corbusier’s
projects, on the other hand, he argued, have often been taken
as «final proposals», and critics have tended to emphasize
their defects. Sert insisted that «Le Corbusier himself is aware
of the need for developing further some his plans; and, in projects
like those in Algiers or Paris, one can see the progress
made in later versions». Sert praised the way Le Corbusier
emphasized the architectural aspects of planning, normally
neglected by «economists and sociologists», and added,
«An Ebenezer Howard or a Patrick Geddes does in no way
exclude or replace a Le Corbusier. He has brought forward
the basic elements of the modern city-planning concept». For
Sert, a new focus on the pedestrian heart of the city was only
a short step from this architecturally oriented approach, even
though in certain ways it greatly modified some of Le Corbusier’s
well-known planning principles.
Sert remained in close contact with Le Corbusier during
this period, who began working on a plan for Bogotá in 1947.
Wiener had written to Sert from Aspen, Colorado around the
same time, making reference to a possible project for New
York developer William Zeckendorf for the area adjoining the
U.N. Headquarters in New York. It was to be a joint venture
between Town Planning Associates and Le Corbusier’s ATBAT
(the group he had established to do the construction docu-
ments for the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille). Wiener wrote, «I
suppose Zeckendorf would state the problem and the program,
and Corbu would... evolve a scheme and send it to
us». He also told Sert that Zeckendorf was negotiating to
buy and develop a huge tract of land in downtown Denver,
adding, «There is no doubt that a gradual friendly association
with this ‘go-getter’ can be of great value to us. If only
one of his schemes materializes it would represent a major
realistic work; if not, it is certainly interesting to project
advanced ideas, if properly paid». Nothing seems to have
come of either of these central urban projects, however, and
a year later Sert wrote to Giedion that «everything is at a
standstill in the US, no building or planning activities of any
kind, only convention speeches being broadcast all the time.
The situation is not encouraging».
Zeckendorf chose not to commission this team for his
Denver projects, and, acting on Philip Johnson’s advice,
he instead hired as his in-house architect a young Chinese-
Josep Lluís Sert, the Ciam "Heart of the City" and the Bogotá Plan | Eric Mumford
243