Seminar 2: Modernism and Early Urban Planning

Seminar 2 looked at the beginnings of modern urban planning which occurred during the industrial revolution. The reading is written by Richard T Legates and Frederic Stout both of which are academics in the planning field. The reading looked at the growth of planning from 1870 to 1940 and looked at several planning concepts such as the Park’s Movement, the Garden City, the City Beautiful movement and modernism in planning.

The Park’s Movement was one the first concepts of planning to help create a better environment for people to live in, other than the horror of living in polluted and intoxicating industrial revolution cities. The Park’s Movement was all about bringing a natural environment to the city. One of the greatest and most successful examples, is Central Park in New York. This is a prime example of bringing a natural environment into a city, which is still very successful in the present day. Ebenezer Howard was at the forefront of Garden Cities, which were the idea of bringing the countryside into a city. Howard was very much part of the creation of the first garden city; Letchworth. The City Beautiful Movement came about in the 1890s and was continuation of both the previous movements in planning.

One of the most interesting things I discovered in the reader was Le Corbusier who argued for density through skyscrapers and Frank Lloyd Wright who argued for urban sprawl. Both of these techniques were taken up by many cities worldwide after World War 2. Though it interesting that these 20^th century plans have created issues for planners of the 21^st century. I thought that seminar 2 was very interesting and engaging and I am looking forward to the next seminar.