I had never heard of the word euthenic . It is the opposite of eugenics which is biologically and genetically focused. Euthenics is environment focused. The nature vs nurture debate has opposing 'ics' . I wandered across the term in Paul Ashton's discussion of the Cahill Expressway .

From the article:

Prior to World War I, town planners spoke with passion and some authority about the pivotal role that planning would play in generating material and moral progress. Eradicating slums and urban chaos - and for conservatives, socialism - would improve the lower orders, while the transformation of obsolete infrastructure would generate wealth and happiness.

Both outcomes would contribute to social cohesion and progress. Town planning was thus euthenic; it was predicated on the notion that environmental conditions influenced or even determined human characteristics and behaviour. Euthenics was based on nurture; eugenics, its social engineering opposite, held up nature or biology as the key to human progress.

Ashton writes that after WWI euthenic town planning lost its influence and specialists such as engineers with utilitarian outlooks took over. The Cahill Expressway is a bit ugly, and Ashton notes that it was opened in 1958 prior to the development of skyscrapers in the Sydney CBD which happened through the 1960s.

From my own experiences in the Quay, it is dark and ugly in the stretch where the rail and expressway go over the top of the Quay. However, I lived for a time in Sydney southern beaches and it was the only way that the southern beaches were connected to North Sydney and the Harbour Bridge. Until the advent of the tunnel, and the improvement of the Great Western Highway, the Cahill Expressway was a transportation necessity.

Could it have been built differently so that it didn't run across the Quay? Most likely. There is nothing saying that Anzac Parade has to be entered at its most northern point, which is how the Harbour Tunnel tackled that problem.

Even though I grew up in NW Sydney and lived for periods in different parts of inner-Sydney and regional NSW, when I came across the northern side of Sydney and hit highway after highway as they fed into the Harbour Bridge - I would be faced with the rising structure of the Harbour Bridge, the figure of the Opera House and Skyscrapers across the harbour.

On seeing that sight, especially if I had been travelling, I would often utter, "I am home."

It was Sydney.

Developers in Northern Virginia built out large suburbs of mixed high, medium and low density housing: suburbs with broad streets and trendy, new shopping centres and malls. However they found young educated professionals were choosing the old city downtowns like Alexandria and Arlington over their new developments. This was a wealthy market that the developers did not like missing out on. A new development in Northern Virginia is Lansdowne. It contains the normal spiralling suburb but with sections that have artificially constructed town centres.

Parking is off the side of the town centre so the restaurants and shops are pedestrian friendly. There is a tall clock tower, a small atrium for music, and central park area. Surrounding the town square is high density housing and light commercial buildings. This is being designed for the single young professionals. I like it.

The goal is to give it a European feel, but like Las Vegas, the buildings are new, clean and air conditioned. Plus there are touches of modern American landscaping.

One of the most successful upscale big stores is Wegmans. This is a Dutch company but is run out of Rochestor, NY. The stores are slowly making their way south from the US NE and one recently opened in Ashburn, VA near the AOL Headquarters. These are heavily trafficked by the working professionals of North Virginia.

Where Wegmans differs from other big box stores is that they design them inside like a town square. It looks like a cross between the Montreal fishmarkets and a European town centre. Both Lansdowne and Wegmans are probably aimed directly at people like me. I like them. They are well designed and executed.