"In 1940 David Rockefeller became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, which had been established in 1901 by his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller. A decade later he succeeded his father as chairman of the Institute's Board of Trustees, serving in that capacity for 25 years (1950-1975). Working with Detlev Bronk, Rockefeller led the transformation of the research institute into a biomedical graduate university, which was renamed the Rockefeller University in 1965" (David Rockefeller, 2004).
Jane Jacobs was born May 4, 1916 and died April 25, 2006. She was an American-Canadian writer and activist with major interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for the Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a commanding review of the urban renewal guidelines of the 1950's in the United States. The book has been recognized as reaching beyond planning issues to persuade the spirit of the times. Along with her renowned printed works, Jacobs is similarly well-known for arranging grassroots efforts to obstruct urban-renewal projects that would have damaged local neighborhoods. She was involved in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway (Jane Jacobs, n.d).
In the world of planning, Jane Jacobs' views about the ways in which cities function, transformed the urban planning profession and questioned numerous accepted planning models that dominated planning at the time. Throughout her life, she fought to change the way in which city development was approached. "By arguing that cities were living beings and ecosystems, she advocated ideas such as "mixed use" development and bottom-up planning. Furthermore, her harsh criticisms of "slum clearing" and "high-rise housing" projects...
Jane Jacobs will be remembered as being an advocate for the mindful development of cities and has left "a legacy of empowerment for citizens to trust their common sense and become advocates for their place" (Jane Jacobs, n.d).
Both David Rockefeller and Jane Jacobs were intelligent people who believed in their causes with a vengeance. David Rockefeller was a great believer in developing a partnership between government and the private sector. He believed that the two should work together for the good of everyone. He spent a lot of time, energy and effort doing what he could to foster this relationship and make the world a better place. Jane Jacobs was also one would expended a lot of effort trying to make the world a better place. She spent a lot of time promoting the idea that urban planning should be done with the utmost care, so as to try and preserve as much of the land as possible. Both of these great people believed that the world should be made as great as possible for those who not only live here now but for those generations that are yet to come.
References
Brooklyn Bridge. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.aviewoncities.com/nyc/brooklynbridge.htm
Cross Bronx Expressway. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nycroads.com/roads/cross-bronx/
David Rockefeller. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.rockarch.org/bio/david.php
Jane Jacobs. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.pps.org/articles/jjacobs-2/
The 1911 Triangle Factory Fire. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Trans-Manhattan Expressway. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nycroads.com/roads/trans-manhattan/
