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Sergei N. Grimm Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: KM
Date: Dec 1990

Biographical History

A native of Russia, Sergei N. Grimm was a civil engineer who served as executive director of the Syracuse-Onondaga Post-War Planning Council, and held positions within the Syracuse Housing Authority, and the (Syracuse) City Planning Commission. He served as a consultant to the federal government, conducted numerious seminars, and wrote extensively on scientific urban planning.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Sergei N. Grimm Papers comprise Correspondence-subject files, Writings, and Maps which document the history of urban planning in Onondaga County and the city of Syracuse from 1930 through 1960.

Correspondence-subject files contain a variety of documents relating to the Village of Jordan (New York), the Syracuse-Onondaga Post-War Planning Council, the Syracuse Housing Authority, the (Syracuse) City Planning Commission, a series of urban planning seminars at Syracuse University, and general information on housing. Spanning 1930 through 1937, the materials in the collection which relate to Jordan, New York, consist of a series of documents, chiefly legal, pertaining to application to the city of Syracuse to supply water to the Village. Also included are petitions to the State Water Power and Control Commission.

The Syracuse-Onondaga Post-War Planning Council was among the earliest efforts to address regional planning issues in the United States. Materials relating to this seminal planning body include Grimm's correspondence (1943-1945), a report, Post-War Perspective, issued in 1944, and a number of documents suggesting the reorganization of the Council, shifting its function from investigation to implementation. Materials which pertain to the Syracuse Housing Authority (1945-circa 1953) include correspondence, development programs, and architectural plans.

The (Syracuse) City Planning Commission materials are divided into industrial site planning documents and those concerning the operations of the Commission. The industrial site planning materials include correspondence and miscellaneous items (1954-1955) relating to the Syracuse Industrial Planning Committee, as well as a sizable group of printed items concerning the promotion of business interests within various communities as well as Syracuse in particular. The collection also contains a series of documents (1955-1957) prepared by Grimm which constitute an analysis of the operations of the (Syracuse) City Planning Commission. This body of material is followed by a number of Commission reports which were issued between 1952 and 1957 with reference to rules and regulations for the subdivision of land, sites for public housing, a proposal suggesting the administrative organization for urban renewal, and a proposed cultural center. The collection also includes a summary of the Commission's activities for January 1956 through July 1957.

The remainder of the Correspondence-Subject Files includes correspondence, curricula, and notes relating to the urban planning seminars at Syracuse University (1948-1960), as well as printed material from the Public Housing Administration and specifications, estimates, and architectural drawings concerning a proposed apartment development in Syracuse.

Writings are mostly those of Sergei Grimm, however the collection also includes a copy of "Zoning as a Planning Tool," a dissertation by Richard T. Frost. Grimm's writings include numerous drafts of a monograph, "Physical Urban Planning: System of General Concepts and Principal Features" as well as copies of Notes on Fundamentals of Scientific Urban Planning and The Scientific Urban Planning System, issued by the Center for the Development of Scientific Urban Planning Methods, Inc.

Maps include numerous topographic maps, chiefly of the central region of New York State.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Grimm, Sergei N.

Corporate Bodies

Center for the Development of Scientific Urban Planning Methods, Inc.
Syracuse Housing Authority.
Syracuse-Onondaga Post-War Planning Council.

Associated Titles

Notes on fundamentals of scienfitic urban planning.
Physical urban planning: system of general concepts and principal features.
Post-war perspective.
The scientific urban planning system.

Subjects

City planning -- New York (State) -- Syracuse.
Civil engineers -- United States.
Housing authorities -- New York (State) -- Syracuse.
Industrial promotion -- New York (State)
Land use -- Planning.
Planners -- New York (State)
Regional planning -- New York (State) -- Onondaga County.
Russian Americans.
Urban renewal -- New York (State) -- Syracuse.

Places

Syracuse (N.Y.) -- Politics and government.

Genres and Forms

Architectural drawings (visual works)
Correspondence.
Curricula.
Dissertations.
Manuscripts for publication.
Organizational charts.
Reports.
Topographic maps.

Occupations

Civil engineers.
Planners.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Sergei N. Grimm Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Lyall D. and Linda E. Squair.

Report to Syracuse Housing Authority (1953), gift of Cornell University, 2013.

Table of Contents

Correspondence-subject files

Maps

Writings

Inventory