Major American Planning Movements Flashcards
City Beautiful Movement: During the late 1800s and early 1900s,
U.S. cities were becoming places that had severe poverty, crime, and blight.
There was a movement to address these issues through the expression of moral and civic virtues. Daniel Burnham was a leader in promoting this movement. City Beautiful leaders believed that creating a beautiful city would inspire residents to lead virtuous lives.
The result of the City Beautiful movement was the creation of Beaux-Arts style civic centers. The first model civic center was the White City, created by Daniel Burnham in Chicago for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Another example of the City Beautiful was the McMillan Plan of 1901 for Washington D.C., which sought to resurrect L’Enfant’s 1791 Plan for Washington and restore the city to civic greatness. More information about the L’Enfant Plan and the McMillan plans for Washington DC can be found through the National Park Service. Many cities throughout the U.S. incorporated City Beautiful ideas and sought to create downtown civic centers.
Garden City Movement: In 1898, Ebenezer Howard wrote To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. This book was later reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow. It explained the principles behind Garden City. After publishing the book he formed the Garden-City Association in England in 1899.
A Garden City is self-contained, with a population of 32,000 and a land area of 6,000 acres. A Garden City would house 30,000 people on 1,000 acres, with remaining land and population in farming areas. Garden City was intended to bring about economic and social reform. L
Through the Garden-City Association, Howard was able to secure funding for the development of three garden cities. In 1903, Letchworth was constructed. This was the first English city of its kind, and it was influential to the New Town Movement in the U.S.
The idea of the Garden City caught on in the United States. The Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA), led by Lewis Mumford, Benton MacKaye (who conceived of the Appalachian Trial) and others, promoted the concept.
In 1922, the first effort at building a Garden City began in Sunnyside Gardens, New York. A total of 77 acres in Queens was purchased and Clarence Stein devised a plan for 1,202 housing units.
In 1928, the construction of the first American Garden City in Radburn, New Jersey began, designed by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright.and ownership would be held by a corporation.
The City Efficient, aka City Functional or City Scientific,
was a reaction against the City Beautiful movement, which was seen as overly focused on beauty and not sufficiently concerned with matters of function and efficiency. The City Beautiful movement was openly denounced at the first planning conference in 1909.
President Roosevelt established the Resettlement Administration in 1935, during the Great Depression.
This agency was responsible for the Greenbelt Towns Program (or Green Towns Program). The Green Towns program developed three cities based on Howard’s ideas: Greendale, Wisconsin; Greenhills, Ohio; and Greenbelt, Maryland.
Following World War II, Great Britain passed the New Towns Act in 1946.
This Act led to the development of more than a dozen new communities based on Howard’s ideas.
Also following World War II, Park Forest, Illinois was developed
as a New Town.
Most of the Garden Cities that were developed failed to attain Howard’s ideal.
Most lacked industry and true city centers and, in the end, most became residential suburbs.
