Tony the Oncologist

Back To The Future: A City Planner's Perspective (Part Four.)

This is the fourth in a series on the Back To The Future franchise as seen by a city planning nerd. Frame grabs are copyright Universal Pictures and are used here on the basis of fair use, for commentary purposes. Downtown Hill Valley and Courthouse Square As I noted before, it's Hill Valley itself that is as much a co-star as any actor in the Back To The Future franchise. We see various parts of town in one or more time periods. However, it's only the Courthouse Square and its surrounding city blocks that appear in all five eras. Before we get into particulars, here are the town square's five incarnations, in no particular order. Courthouse Square, 1955: Courthouse Square Parking Lot, 1985: Courthouse Square Mall, 2015: Biff's Pleasure Palace Parking, 1985A: Hill County Courthouse, 1885 (under construction): There's so much going on here that I'm not even going to try to get into it in this post. I'll be going into detail in the next few weeks. For now, suffice it to say that these images speak volumes about what has happened to North American towns in the past century, and our wishes, feelings and hopes in this regard.