Cities of Meaning: Understanding Cultural Landscapes as a Planning Agenda in Richmond, VA

Using the case of two proposed large-scale redevelopments in Richmond, Virginia over the past four decades, we examine how cultural landscapes were used as a base of resistance to top-down decision-making, a means of determining who had the right to be at the table and a mechanism for defining the future. Through extensive archival research, network analysis, and key informant interviews, we examine the interaction between cultural landscapes, process, and outcome in planning. We argue that planning must understand the value of cultural landscapes as more than just a particular outcome or degree of engagement in the process. Instead, cultural landscapes should be understood in planning as a mechanism for setting an agenda of who, how, and to what end we engage in a place.