Founded in 1923, the association brought together the intellectual achievements of a range of disciplines such as the sociology of Charles Horton Cooley, the economic analysis of Thorstein Veblen, and the urban approach of Geddes and Howard, as well as the educational philosophy of John Dewey. In the course of the 10 years of activities, the members of the RPAA developed crucial ideas and concepts towards city planning, promoting an anti-metropolitan and hostile attitude towards big cities or “necropolis.” While the RPNY, Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, led by Thomas Adams, the director of Plans and Surveys in NYC, envisioned a plan based on the metropolis as the key (economic) factor, the RPAA established the “regional city” as a social reformist response to the problems of the congested industrial cities. Advocating the idea of (self-sufficient) decentralized satellite cities, the RPAA’s objective was to create a series of equal and non-hierarchical communities by integrating Howard’s garden city, Perry’s neighbourhood unit, the exclusion of industries, and a segregated traffic solution. These thoughts were applied to the design of the new town of Radburn in New Jersey, primarily a residential “bedroom suburb” with designated recreational and civic zones for homogenous white-collar residents.

Club meetings took place up to two or three times a week in Manhattan, and on the weekends at the Hudson Guild Farm in Netcong, New Jersey. Here, MacKaye, who at the time worked on the development of the Appalachian trail, taught the attendant members how to square dance and sing Appalachian folk ballads indicating both a theoretical and applied examination and new awareness of the vernacular. Invited guests included Clarence Perry and Patrick Geddes, who took part in the meetings only occasionally or once. (CL)

Founding members: F.L. Ackerman, Frederick Bigger, A.M. Bing, John Bright, Stuart Chase, R.D. Kohn, Benton MacKaye, Lewis Mumford, C.S. Stein, C.H. Whitaker, Henry Wright

Later members: Edith Elmer Wood, Tracy Augur, Catherine Bauer

Sources
Andrew A. Meyers (1998): “Invisible Cities: Lewis Mumford, Thomas Adams, and the Invention of the Regional City, 1925-1929.” In: Business and Economic History. Issue 27/ 1998. 293-108
Parsons, Kermit C. (1994): “Collaborative Genius: The Regional Planning Association of America.” In: Journal of the American Planning Association, Volume 60, Issue 4/1994. 462 – 482
Stein, Clarence S./ Parsons, Carlyle Kermit (Eds)(1998): The writings of Clarence S. Stein. Architect of the planned community. Baltimore, Md. [u.a.]: Johns Hopkins Univ.
Stein, Clarence (1957): Toward New Towns for America. New York: Reinhold