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Acknowledgments If you want to get a conversation started in Philadelphia, just start asking questions about Edmund Bacon and his legacy, his imprint on the city— people have strong opinions. I entered the conversation in 2006 while doing research for an article about cold war disaster preparedness in Philadelphia. While working one afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives I came across an essay in Bacon’s files, ‘‘Philadelphia in the Year 2009.’’ I copied it and slipped it into a folder, and over the next couple of years I passed it around to friends and used it in the classroom to drive discussion, at which it never failed. With 2009 drawing nearer, it occurred to me that the time was right to assemble a team of authors who could contextualize, interpret, and even improvise new ideas using Bacon’s vision for the city of the future—the Philadelphia of today. Sincere thanks go to the Bacon family for permission to reprint Ed Bacon’s ‘‘2009’’ essay. Each author will thank individuals critical to his or her own chapter, but here I wish to acknowledge people who were instrumental to the entire project. Without archivists and librarians this book would not exist. Thanks go to Bill Whittaker and Nancy Thorne and the staff at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, where we were opening boxes and reading documents before they had even been catalogued ! Thanks to David Baugh and the staff of the Philadelphia City Archives—they have more information on the Bicentennial Corporation than anyone. Thanks to Brenda Galloway-Wright and the staff of the Temple University Urban Archives; also to staff of the Cornell University Libraries, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and the Philadelphia Free Library. The research effort would not have been possible without two programs at Drexel University, and two outstanding research assistants. The College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Fellows program facilitated a summer research fellowship for Madison Eggert-Crowe, who also compiled the index; and the STAR program in the Pennoni Honors College facilitated a summer research fellowship for Michael Hess. The Drexel Engineering Cities Initiative brown bag series provided a forum for discussion of the book at a key stage. Thanks to Julie Thompson for fact- 178 Acknowledgments checking work, and to PennPraxis for making this and additional administrative support available. Each of the authors—Eugenie L. Birch, Gregory Heller, Guian McKee, and Harris M. Steinberg—provided research assistance and editorial support that strengthened the entire book. Jeffrey A. Knowles provided intellectual support throughout, and performed a heroic edit and fact-check in the eleventh hour. Thanks also to Julia Meurling and Susan Meurling for preparation of the Bacon manuscript essay. Barbara Beach at Philadelphia Magazine helped arrange article reproduction permission, and assisted with tracking down the name of the artist whose extraordinary work provides the cover and several images in the book, William Barron. James Balga helped arrange permission to reproduce I. M. Pei’s drawing of Society Hill Towers. Thanks to Don Springer for allowing us to use his photograph of Ed Bacon at Pennypack Creek. Two anonymous reviewers provided useful critiques of this volume. Sincere thanks also to Ashley Nelson and Alison Anderson at University of Pennsylvania Press. Bob Lockhart rallied around this rather unconventional project, and provided needed advice, critique, and support throughout—he is a gem of an editor. ...

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