Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright late in his life. He presented the idea in his article, The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot (3.7 by 3.7 m) scale model representing an hypothetical four square mile (10 km²) community. The model was crafted by the student interns who worked for him at Taliesin. Wright would go on refining the concept in later books and in articles until his death in 1959. Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was one of the most prominent architects of the first half of the 20th century. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Information on Taliesin, the Welsh bard, is located on another page. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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

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 (4,000 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 of the recent idea of transit-oriented development. 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 (4,000 m²) plots where most of the population dwells. The car is not supreme though, since the true overlord is architecture and its immediate interpreter is the architect. The term suburbia is frequently used to encapsulate the concept of suburbs as oddly picturesque slices of tract-home nuclear family life that harbour forces destructive of natural human impulses towards true community and concerns of communal welfare. ... ... An acre is an English unit of area. ... Transit-oriented development (TOD) refers to residential and commercial areas designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership. ... A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... A pedestrian at the intersection of Alinga Street and Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, Australia Look up Pedestrian on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether walking or running. ... // Scope and intentions According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius De Architectura, good buildings should have Beauty (Venustas), Firmness (Firmitas) and Utility (Utilitas); architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others. ...

Wright was probably pushed into action by the work and ideas of his former colleague, Richard Neutra around the concept of what he called Rush city. Wright's view was different in many respects (Neutra factored in pedestrians and their special needs for one), so he was not so much inspired by Neutra as driven, by his keen sense of competition, to show the world what his vision of communities of the future was like. Kaufman House, Palm Springs, California. ...

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. Garden City is the name of several places around the world. ... Frederick Law Olmsted, oil painting by John Singer Sargent, 1895, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822–August 28, 1903) was a United States landscape architect, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park in New York, New York, the countrys oldest... Ebenezer Howard (1850 - 1928) was a prominent British urban planner. ... Edge city is an American term for a relatively new concentration of business, shopping and entertainment outside a traditional urban area, in what had recently been a residential suburb or semi-rural community. ...

See also

List of planned cities Broadacre City was a city designed for American Democracy which, being misunderstood and misused, became the apotheosis of the newly born suburbia, engendering urban sprawl. The idea of Broadacre city was shaped through Wright's empathy with the founders of our New Republic, Jefferson, Washington, et al where independence and liberty as well as moral virtues are best secured by individual ownership of the means of survival. It was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme by which population density U.S. would be one acre (4,000 m²) per person (maintained by site value taxation) and a Wright-conceived community would follow this pattern beginning at the County Seat or center of population. In a sense it was the exact opposite of the recent idea of transit-oriented development. There is no train station in Broadacres City; the railroad becomes obsolete and is to be replaced by a 528 feet wide freeway - the entire city was to be located within and along the old land grant railway corridor. There are a few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City; the apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority. Transport is done by automobile and quiet flying radio controlled helicopter taxis; the pedestrian may use sidewalks alongside streets and roads as well as within the security of the broad acre (4,000 m²) plots where most of the population dwells. An office of County Architect is to replace the County Engineer to assure expert planning and coordination of other Design Professionals in the very complex process of building cities; presently this is done by untrained non-architect politicians and developers who have created havoc over the years. (See Architecture). Design and planning professionals sometimes feel exasperated that they are window dressing the politicians use to deceive the public. This is a list of planned cities (sometimes known as planned communities or new towns) by country. ... The term suburbia is frequently used to encapsulate the concept of suburbs as oddly picturesque slices of tract-home nuclear family life that harbour forces destructive of natural human impulses towards true community and concerns of communal welfare. ... ... An acre is an English unit of area. ... Transit-oriented development (TOD) refers to residential and commercial areas designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership. ... A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... A pedestrian at the intersection of Alinga Street and Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, Australia Look up Pedestrian on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether walking or running. ... // Scope and intentions According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius De Architectura, good buildings should have Beauty (Venustas), Firmness (Firmitas) and Utility (Utilitas); architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others. ...

KYMAK agent 12.28.12.56 14:27, 23 September 2005 (UTC) http://www.geocities.com/douglas36601/background.html

References

• Krohe, James Jr. Return to Broadacre City. Illinois Issues April 2000, 27. Also in digital form on the Web.
• 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 - http://www.fba.fh-darmstadt.de/lehrinhalte/Allgemein/Fachgruppen/Darstellung/Geometrie/Plakate/pages/A2%20Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright%20-%20Broadacre%20City%201.htm