While legislators, lawmakers and judges “fail to find fault with physical acts of exclusion,” Sarah Schindler argues that “the built environment has been used to keep certain segments of population—typically poor people and people of color—separate from others” (1939). In Schindler’s article, “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment,” the author acknowledges that she and the government agree that architecture segregates, however, the law claims the exclusionary effects are “innocuous” (1939). Schindler disagrees and asserts that suburbs and cities were intentionally constructed to discriminate against lower class citizens. In this context, the word architecture includes, “civil engineering, city planning, urban design, and transit routing and infrastructure” (Schindler 1940). Schindler writes this persuasive article in order to grab the attention of the they sayers and “offer examples of architectural exclusion with the hope that citizens, legislators, administrators and legal scholars will look for ways to accommodate more effectively the exclusionary effects of design decisions” (1941).

Image of a truck getting stuck under one of Moses’ short overpasses

Although Schindler proclaims that the government fails to acknowledge the problem of exclusion in built environments because “it is difficult to show the necessary intent to discriminate” (1939), she provides examples that help make it clear that these acts of discrimination were purposely implanted to regulate relationships and society. She believes, “architectural regulation is powerful in part because it is unseen; it allows government to shape our actions without perceiving that our experience has been deliberately shaped” (Schindler 1940). The urban planner, Robert Moses, passively regulates as he builds the numerous overpasses in Long Island. He “directed that these overpasses be built intentionally low so that buses could not pass under them” (Schindler 1937), which meant that people of color and of lower class who relied on public transportation, could not enter the suburban area. Robert Moses used the bridge to regulate who could and could not come in. The people who lived in Long Island were of upper class, therefore they owned cars and could easily fit under the structure to enter their controlled public areas. The overpass acts as a gate that only allows eligible people through. Schindler proclaims that the same type of discrimination is persistent through “street grid design, one-way streets, the absence of sidewalks and crosswalks, the  location of  highways and transit stops, and even residential parking permit requirements” (1939). The lack of sidewalks in most suburbs encourages people who do not have cars to stay away from the suburbs due to the dangers of traveling by foot on the sides of streets, while the residential parking permits interdict outsiders from parking in certain areas. These examples show how the government regulates relationships so that outsiders of lower class do not socialize with people of upper class.

a park bench with armrest

Schindler also suggests that the built environment regulates behavior by prohibiting citizens from doing things that the government does not agree with. Schindler gives the example of a park bench which is divided into three seats. She says, “one might think it a simple aesthetic design decision to create a park bench that is divided into three individual seats with armrests  separating those seats. Yet the bench may have been created this way to prevent often homeless people from lying  down  and  taking  naps” (Shindler 1942). Schindler uses this example to point out that the regulations are subtle and easy to overlook, but they still have an affect on the people. Because this park bench forbids homeless people from sleeping on it, it controls the behavior of the and atmosphere of the public area by keeping it from becoming a place where groups may feel uncomfortable around homeless people.

Sara Schindler finds her argument relevant because the effects of the built environment continue to influence and discriminate against people today, hence the reason she hopes the government “will look for ways to accommodate more effectively the exclusionary effects” (1941). She wants the government to create a plan of action in order to terminate architectural discrimination which may be the same today, as it was when the environment was first built. Many suburbs are still predominantly inhabited by Caucasian Americans, while many cities and areas of less money are still primarily populated by African Americans. If the government recognizes the problem, there can be more integration and less discrimination due to architecture.

Work Cited

Schindler, Sarah. “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical                                                                                                                                                                                      Design of the Built Environment” 124 Yale Law Journal 1934 (2015)

Pictures:

Schlitt, Carol. “Why the Low Bridges on Long Island Parkways?” The Schlitt Law Firm,2010-2015, https://www.schlittlaw.com/blog/low-bridges-long-island-parkways/

“Exclusion by Design” If the River Swells, 6 Apr. 2015,

https://www.iftheriverswells.com/2015/04/06/exclusion-by-design/