Chester Rapkin

Chester A. Rapkin was an American urban planner, urban planning theorist, and economist who made important contributions to housing and renewal programs in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He published an important study in the 1950s about land use and vehicular traffic patterns and served on the New York City Planning Commission from 1969 to 1977. He coined the name "SoHo" for Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood and became known as the "Father of SoHo".

Early life and education

Rapkin was born in 1918 in Manhattan. He attended public schools and received his undergraduate degree from City College in 1939 From 1954 through 1966, he was on the University of Pennsylvania faculty as professor of city and regional planning, and chairman of the urban studies group. He moved on to Columbia University, where he served as professor of urban planning in the Graduate School of Architecture and director of Columbia's Institute of Urban Environment.

In 1965 and 1966, he was staff director of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidential Task Force on Urban Problems, His archives are at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. pioneered the idea that urban planning should take vehicular traffic patterns into account. It reads: "Chester Rapkin / 1918–2001 / Father of SoHo / Scholar, City Planner, Visionary Urbanist, Who Transformed A Moribund Industrial Zone Into A Vital Artistic Commercial And Residential Community / New York City Planning Commissioner / 1969–1977".

In 2015 mixologist Jeremy Oertel created a mixed drink called the Chester Rapkin for the Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan.

In 2022 a newly created public plaza in SoHo was named Rapkin-Gayle Plaza after Rapkin and Margot Gayle.

Personal life

Chester Rapkin married Eva Samuel in 1942. He died of pneumonia on January 28, 2001, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.