STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Block after block of single-family homes built with similar floor plans on similarly sized lots on a leveled and featureless landscape: In 1950, that California planned development won praise.
Two decades later, that residential neighborhood of Lakewood Park came to symbolize the worst of planning.
Adam Rome, an associate professor of history at Penn State, explores Lakewood's shift from poster child to rogues' gallery in his book, "The Bulldozer in the Countryside." The Organization of American Historians recently awarded Rome the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for the book, which looks at Americans' attitudes toward residential development and its impact on the environment.
Among his findings: Concern about sprawl dates back to the 1950s and the first large-scale developments of Levittown on Long Island and Lakewood Park.
The loss of marshes, cornfields and hills to suburban sprawl has fueled Americans' environmental concerns as much as the loss of wilderness.
While some federal agencies create policies seemingly oblivious to environmental concerns, others have brought environmental issues to the forefront of public debate.
"I'm interested in the whole range of environmental problems that come with sprawl," said Rome, who came to Penn State in 1996. "The book looks at what successes and what failures we've had in solving those problems."
A symbol now of urban flight, suburbia has its roots in a housing shortage that began during the Great Depression. In the 1930s, few housing units were built, so that after World War II, there was tremendous demand for housing.
People opted for suburban developments like Levittown because land sold for less outside of cities, Rome said. The new single-family homes were no bigger than city apartments. But because they could be mass produced on large tracts, they were cheaper.
But long-term, suburban sprawl has significant environmental costs. "The suburban way of life is wasteful of resources, and its environmental cost is very high," Rome said.
An example: Basements could become standard as they help cool houses in the summer and heat them in the winter. They often have been scrapped because building with no foundation is cheaper and faster, Rome said.
"We got into the habit after World War II, when energy was cheap, of no longer adapting to the climate," Rome said. "We decided we could make our own climate with air conditioning and powerful heating equipment."
Americans also continue to be wasteful in devouring land. From 1982 to 1992, 1.4 million acres of land was developed annually. But in the mid-1990s, that rate more than doubled to 3.2 million acres a year, Rome said.
During the same time, the development rush in the top five growth states accounted for 1 million acres of land annually -- roughly the total for the nation in the 1950s. The country has enough land to withstand that rate of growth, but not without a cost, Rome said.
"Our landscapes teach us lessons, and the lesson we now get when we see forests, meadows and marshes turning into new offices, houses and stores is that nature is infinitely abundant and infinitely resilient," Rome said. "That lesson is horribly wrong and suggests we can grow forever and use more resources forever."