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Broadacre City

Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. In part, Broadacre City was a reaction to the effects of Great Depression, but also a representation of ideals in regards to housing and development of America in 20th-century. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot (3.7 × 3.7 m) scale model representing a hypothetical four square mile (10 km²) community. The model was crafted by the student interns who worked for him at Taliesin, and financed by Edgar Kaufmann. It was initially displayed at an Industrial Arts Exposition in the Forum at the Rockefeller Center starting on April 15, 1935. After the New York exposition, Kaufmann arranged to have the model displayed in Pittsburgh at an exposition titled "New Homes for Old", sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration. The exposition opened on June 18 on the 11th floor of Kaufmann's store.^[1] Wright went on to refine the concept in later books and in articles until his death in 1959.

Many of the building models in the concept were completely new designs by Wright, while others were refinements of old ones, some of which had been rarely seen.

The Plan[edit | edit source]

Broadacre City was the antithesis of a city and the apotheosis of the newly born suburbia, shaped through Wright's particular vision. It was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme by which each U.S. family would be given a one acre (4,046.86 m²) plot of land from the federal lands reserves, and a Wright-conceived community would be built anew from this. In a sense it was the exact opposite oftransit-oriented development. The City plan included variety of buildings. The families would live in house, small apartment, single family cottages, worker quarters above shops, or larger hillside houses. Moreover, through out the city, about dozen towers composed of 15 floors would be dispersed. Individuals would be able to walk to work, and transportation by a vehicle would be used mostly to travel between cities.There is a train station and a few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City, but the apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority. All important transport is done by automobile and the pedestrian can exist safely only within the confines of the one acre (4,046.86 m²) plots where most of the population dwells.

In his book Urban Planning Theory since 1945, Nigel Taylor Considers the planning methodology of this type of cities to be Blueprint planning, which came under heavy criticism in the late 1950s by many critics such as Jane Jacobs, in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Theoretical underpinnings towards new philosophy of Urbanism

The term Usonia is another name that encompass a culture focused on principles of equality in reference to equal rights and opportunities . Broadacre City incorporated Wright’s beliefs of “urban decentralization, economic-sufficiency and individualism”. Thomas Jefferson's ideas had an important impact on Frank Lloyd Wright and was instrumental in influencing the architect's idealization of American self sufficient city. The city promoted farming and ownership of one acre per family which would allow for families to provide for themselves, and as Arthur C. Nelson points out, “He [Wright] owed much of this vision to the Jeffersonian ideal of rural self-reliance.”.

Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wight's ideas about architecture and urbanism have to be looked at against the history of industrial slums and poverty-stricken immigrants. Wight's use of ‘organic” architecture was fundamental to construction of building within the Broadacre city. He focuses on the interaction between the site and the building, the materials with the landscape and people with the environment. As Jane Preddy points out, "... the buildings that carry his [Wright] name is to a large extent reflective of Japanese thought and building." The buildings would be constructed to harmonize with the surrounding as well as, the houses would use glass, "roofless rooms" and rooftop gardens.

Japanese concepts

In his autobiography, Wright explains that Japanese art and architecture has organic characteristics and Japan itself, as a country, appealed to him as most romantic, artistic and nature-inspired country, The Japanese house was embodiment of elimination of insignificance for Wright . Wright's buildings reflect the elimination of nonessentials in order to provide space that focuses on essential living and working requirements.

Usonian House

Usonian house was instrumental in the idea of Broadacre City. Frank Lloyd Wright recognized the economic and social need for many people to construct their own houses, and this caused Wright to adopt many of the details of the Usonian system to standard dimensions and which which could be ordered and assembled a certain way which gave verity of houses. Further, the sequence and method of assembly had influence of Japanese traditional house construction .

Frank Lloyed Wright's Pope-Leighey House. Falls Church, Virginia.

Similar models[edit | edit source]

Some of the earlier garden city ideas of the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the urban planner Ebenezer Howard had much in common with Broadacre City, save for the absence of the automobile, born much later. More recently, the development of the edge city is like an unplanned, incomplete version of Broadacre city.

The R. W. Lindholm Service Station in Cloquet, Minnesota shows some of Wright's ideas for Broadacre Cit

References[edit | edit source]

• Krohe, James Jr. Return to Broadacre City. Illinois Issues April 2000, 27. Also in digital form on the Web.
• Pimlott, Mark. "Frank Lloyd Wright & Broadacre City". In M. Pimlott's Without and within: Essays on territory and the interior, Rotterdam, Episode Publishers, 2007
• Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Disappearing City. New York, W. F. Payson, 1932
• Wright, Frank Lloyd. When Democracy Builds. University of Chicago Press, 1945
• Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Living City. New York, Horizon Press, 1958.
• Illustrations
• Photograph of Broadacre City model [1]
• Plan of Broadacre City model