NORTH AMERICA

SUBMITTED BY:
KHUSHBOO ZEHRA
B.ARCH IV TH YR
TOWN PLANNING
 INTRODUCTION

The City Beautiful Movement was a reform

philosophy concerning North
American architecture and urban planning that
flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the
intent of
using beautification and monumental grandeur
in cities. The philosophy, which was originally
associated mainly with Chicago, Detroit, and
Washington, D.C. allegedly promoted beauty
not for its own sake, but rather to create moral
and civic virtue among urban populations . THE MALL,WASHINGTON D.C

The City Beautiful movement advocated for sizable public investments in

monumental spaces, street beautification, and classical architecture. Today,
economists and policymakers see the provision of consumer leisure amenities as a
way to attract people and jobs to cities. But past studies have provided only indirect
evidence of the importance of leisure amenities for urban growth and development.
In this article, Jerry Carlino uses a new data set on the number of leisure tourist visits to
metropolitan areas to examine the correlation between leisure consumption
opportunities and population and employment growth in metropolitan areas during
the1990s. His study suggests that leisure amenities are important for an area’s growth,
even after controlling for other characteristics, such as climate or proximity to a
coast.

PHILOSOPHY
•Origins and impact
The philosophy began in the United States in response
to crowding in tenement districts, a consequence of
high birth rates, increased immigration and
consolidation of rural populations into cities. The
philosophy flourished for several decades, and in
addition to the construction of monuments, it also
achieved great influence in urban planning that CAPITOL BUILDING,DENEVER
endured throughout the 20th century, in particular in regard to the later creation
of housing projects in the United States.
The particular architectural style of the philosophy borrowed mainly from the
contemporary Beaux-Arts and neoclassical architectures, which emphasized the necessity
of order, dignity, and harmony.

The City Beautiful advocates sought to improve their city through beautification, which
would have a number of effects:
 social ills would be swept away, as the beauty of the city would inspire civic loyalty and
moral rectitude in the impoverished.
 American cities would be brought to cultural parity with their European competitors
through the use of the European Beaux-Arts idiom .
 a more inviting city centre still would not bring the upper classes back to live, but
certainly to work and spend money in the urban areas.
 HISTORY
The 1890s and early years of the
twentieth century were a turning point
in American society. From 1860-1910
the US population jumped from 31.4
million to 91.9 million. That means that
over this span of forty years the
population tripled in size. Urban
centers especially felt a strain as 46%
of the population lived in urban
areas. Cities stretched to
accommodate these millions and
deteriorated in the process. As the
destitute crowded cities, living in back
alleys and crowded apartments, the
upper classes moved out of the city
centers to the peaceful retreat of the
The City Beautiful Movement, lead by the
countryside. The advent of urban rail
middle and upper classes, was meant to deal
systems and roadways allowed for this
with these rising issues of sanitation, crime,
upper-class migration to the
and over-population of cities. In the height of
suburbs. Those elite who stayed in the
the Gilded Age, these reformers felt the best
city were surrounded by poverty and
way to deal with these issues was through
feared for their safety, many city-
consumption and creation of beauty. They
dwellers were desperate for money
felt that classic beauty of the city would inspire
and food. In the center of
feelings of civic loyalty and moral rectitude in
Washington, D.C., 18,978 people lived
the impoverished that would help to lower
in 303 alleys surrounding upper-class
crime rates. Uncultivated backyards and
townhouses (Rose).
vacant lots were seen as eyesores
(Basset,1981). In fact, some kitchen gardens
nourishing the poor were “improved” or
destroyed to be replaced by elegant and
classic-style parks and promenades
(Williamson).
 ARCHITECTURAL IDIOMS DURING CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT

World Columbian Exposition

The first large-scale elaboration of the City Beautiful occurred during the World Columbian
Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. The planning of the exposition was directed by
architect Daniel Burnham. The exposition displayed a model city of grand scale, known as
the "White City", with modern transport systems and no poverty visible. The exposition is
credited with resulting in the large-scale adoption of monumentalism for American
architecture for the next 15 years.

Louisiana Purchase Exposition

The popularization begun by the World Columbian Exposition was increased by
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. During 1901 the commissioner of architects
selected Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray to be Chief of Design of
the fair. he designed the following fair buildings in the prevaling Beaux Arts mode: the
Palace of Agriculture; the cascades and colonnades; the Palace of Forestry, Fish, and
Game; the Palace of Horticulture; and the Palace of Transportation; all of which were
much emulated for civic projects across the United States

MC MILLIAN PLAN (WASHINGTON D.C)

The McMillan Plan was an
architectural plan
for Washington, D.C.
formulated in 1902 by the
Senate Park Improvement
Commission of the District
of Columbia. The
commission was named for
its chairman, Senator
James McMillan of
Michigan.

Axial plan of The Mall, Washington, D.C.: the Reflecting Pool

and Lincoln Memorial extend the central axis

An early use of the City Beautiful ideal with intent of creating social order by
beautification was the McMillan Plan, named for the Michigan Senator James McMillan,
which developed from the Senate Park Commission's redesigning of the monumental
area of Washington, D.C.
The Washington planners, who included Burnham, , visited many of the great cities
of Europe with the intent of making Washington monumental and gardened like the
European capitals of the era and creating a sense of the legitimacy of government
during a time of social disturbance in the United States. The essence of the plan
surrounded the United States Capitol with monumental government buildings to replace
"notorious slum communities". At the heart of the design was the creation of the National
Mall and eventually included Burnham's Union Station.
DENVER (UNITED STATES)

In Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer endorsed

City Beautiful planning, with a plan for a
Civic Center, disposed along a grand
esplanade that led to theColorado State
Capitol. The plan was realized partly, on a
reduced scale, with the Greek
amphitheater, Voorhies Memorial and the
Colonnade of Civic Benefactors, completed
during 1919. Monuments and vistas were an
essential feature of City Beautiful urban
planning: in Denver, Paris-trained American
sculptor Frederick MacMonnies was CAPITOL BUILDING IN DENEVER
commissioned to design a monument
marking the end of the Smoky Hill Trail.

BURNHAM PLAN, CHICAGO

RIVER INTERSECTION BY DANIEL BURNHUM

The 1909 Plan of Chicago of 1909 was co-

authored by Daniel H. Burnham and Edward
H. Bennett. Popularly known as the Burnham
Plan, it featured waterfront parks and
prominent civic buildings, applying the
principles of the City Beautiful Movement.

It was the first comprehensive plan for the growth of a large American city. An outgrowth
of the City Beautiful movement, the plan included ambitious proposals for the lakefront
and river and declared that every citizen should be within walking distance of a park. the
plan’s focus on big infrastructure improvements served a rapidly growing city .

Influence in other cities

The philosophy's success in Washington, D.C. is credited with influencing subsequent plans
for beautification of many other cities, including Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Des
Moines, Montreal, Denver, Madison ,New York City (notably the Manhattan Municipal
Building), Pittsburgh ,San Francisco , and the Washington State Capitol Campus in
Olympia and the University of Washington's Rainier Vista in Seattle.