1914 Berlin-Waterloo Plan: Rough Draft to Public Document‪.‬

Abstract The first urban plan for Berlin-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, was a 1914 City Beautiful document. Much of its development was undertaken by the Berlin Civic Association, a group of 14 private citizens who hired New York landscape architect Charles Leavitt to formulate expert advice for the two communities. This paper is based on a textual analysis of the six available rough drafts of the Berlin-Waterloo Plan. It aims to understand the differences between Leavitt's knowledge of ideal planning practice and the locals' greater familiarity with their particular urban situation. The Plan's text is scrutinized in a three-part analytical framework that traces the evolution of ideas through the drafts. Charles Leavitt's strongest recommendations dealt with social arrangements, not city structure. He argued that planning be done by able citizens with interest and experience, resulting in the creation of local planning agencies, an institutional change that had to occur before physical improvements could follow.