HTML-Encoded Finding Aid

Title: Carl W. Almblad Collection

Genre: Papers

Dates: 1913-1988          

Size: 24 linear feet

ID#: 1602                    

OCLC:                             

Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor & Urban Affairs

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SCOPE & CONTENTS

Ø     Subjects

Ø     Transfer

SERIES STATEMENT

Index [Large file]

Reuther Web Holdings

Scope & Contents

Carl W. Almblad was born on August 16, 1924 in Chicago and spent his entire professional career as an urban planner.  He pursued undergraduate studies in civil engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the early 1940s and received a B.S. in architecture from the University of Illinois in 1950 and an M.S. in urban planning from Wayne State University in 1961.

In 1950 he began work with the Chicago Plan Commission as a student intern and was later promoted to associate planner.  His responsibilities included conducting redevelopment studies, housing and economic studies, and regional studies. 

Mr. Almblad left Chicago in 1953 to join the Detroit City Plan Commission where he worked over the next several years as a senior, principal and, finally, head city planner, responsible for urban renewal planning, master plan studies, coordination with neighborhood groups, model neighborhood plans, and city-wide historic and renewal studies.  In 1971 he was appointed assistant director of the City Plan Commission. 

In 1974, Mr. Almblad assumed leadership of the City of Detroit Community and Economic Development Department.  As planning head of the department, his duties included regulating zoning uses, urban renewal planning, public works projects administration and responsibility for urban design, graphics, exhibits and films.  He left in 1982 to become chief administrator of the Detroit Historic District Commission.

After his retirement in June of 1988, Mr. Almblad relocated to North Carolina, where he has become an avid watercolorist.

The papers of Carl W. Almblad contain correspondence, manuals, maps, reports, studies and printed material related to urban planning, urban renewal and historic district development in the cities of Chicago and Detroit.

Subjects

American Institute of Planners

Blessing, Charles A.

Cavanagh, Jerome P.

Central business districts--Michigan--Detroit

Chicago (Ill.)--City planning

Cobo, Albert E.

Detroit--Virginia Park neighborhood

Detroit--West side industrial neighborhood

Detroit Medical Center

Detroit (Mich.) City Plan Commission

Detroit (Mich.)--City planning

Detroit (Mich.) Community and Economic Development Department

Detroit (Mich.) Historic District Commission

Detroit (Mich.)--Model Neighborhood Agency

Detroit (Mich.)--Population

Detroit (Mich.)--Race relations

Detroit (Mich.)--Social policy

Detroit (Mich.)--Urban renewal

Federal aid to community development--Michigan--Detroit

Gribbs, Roman S.

Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration--Michigan--Detroit

Historic districts--Michigan--Detroit

Housing rehabilitation--Michigan--Detroit

Miriani, Louis C.

New Center Commons

Virginia Park

Wayne State University--Michigan--Detroit

Young, Coleman A.

Transfers

A few photographs and a large collection of slides have been transferred to the Archives Audiovisual Collection and several books on urban planning and the city of Detroit have been placed in the Archives Library.

Scope end–Return to Top

Series Statement

24 storage boxes

Series I, Personal, 1938-1962, Boxes 1-2, p. 4

This series contains notes, reports, and studies pertaining to Mr. Almblad's time in Chicago as well as his education at the University of Illinois and Wayne State University. Other information on Chicago may by found in Series IV, Other Cities.  For more information about Mr. Almblad's career with the City of Detroit, see Series II, Detroit City Planning Commission and Series III, Historic District Commission.

Series II, Detroit City Plan Commission, 1913-1988, Boxes 2-17, p. 5

This series contains agendas, articles, brochures, budgets, clippings, drawings, guides, manuals, maps, notes, papers, plans, proposals, reports, scripts, etc. to reflect the activities of the Detroit City Plan Commission and urban planning.  The documents are arranged by geographic area, city department and subject to reflect .

Series III, Historic District Commission, 1964-1988, Boxes 16, 18-22, p. 17

This series contains articles, brochures, budgets, contracts, guidelines, maps, notes, procedures, recommendation, reports, etc. pertaining to the Detroit Historic District Commission activities including historic district designation, rehabilitation techniques, approval procedures and city ordinances, citizen organizations, and information about historic districts.

Series IV, Other Cities, 1947-1987, Boxes 22-24, p. 23

This series contains articles, brochures, clippings, and reports pertaining to urban planning and historic designations in cities outside the Detroit Metropolitan Area.  For more information on Chicago see also Series I, Personal.

Series end–Return to Top

Index [Large file]