Streets of Philadelphia, 1962

From fifty years ago, an educational documentary on town planning, telling the story of the postwar rebuilding of Philadelphia. There's lots of amazing footage of a city in flux, a mixture of historic buildings, derelict areas and the rebuilt centre. Creakily formal men, like a succession of Wizards of Oz, drew their plans with wax crayon on a huge board to demonstrate how the city was changing, and narrate the film in their inexpressive voices.

All of the major urban rebuilding theories are here: the opening up of green spaces, the separation of cars and pedestrians, and the zoning of areas into different functions. But the sheer scale of the plan, and the size of the rebuilding effort makes this an exceptional record of a moment in time when it was briefly possible to tackle the plan of an entire city centre and radically alter it.

The film was sponsored by Reynolds Metals, who'd also helped with the rebuilding, and were keen to become the Nobel of modern architecture, promoting good practice around the world. Five years later the American Institute of Architects awarded the experimental Scottish new town of Cumbernauld the Reynolds Award for outstanding design.