Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century

The utopian visions of three of urban planning’s greatest visionaries.

Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, hated the cities of their time with an overwhelming passion. The metropolis was the counter-image of their ideal cities, the hell that inspired their heavens. In this book Robert Fishman examines the utopian visions of three of urban planning’s greatest visionaries. Howard created the concept of the “garden city” where shops and cottages formed the center of a geometric pattern with farmland surrounding; Wright conceived of “Broadacre City,” the ultimate suburb, where the automobile was king; and Le Corbusier imagined “Ville Radieuse,” the city of cruciform skyscrapers set down in open parkland.
As Robert Fishman writes of three of urban planning's greatest visionaries, Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, they 'hated the cities of their time with an overwhelming passion. The metropolis was the counter-image of their ideal cities, the hell that inspired their heavens.' Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century is the story of the dreams of these three men, each of whom saw the salvation of civilization in his own particular urban vision. Their ideal cities resembled each other no more than they resembled real cities: Howard created the concept of the 'garden city' where shops and cottages formed the center of a geometric pattern with farmland surrounding; Wright...conceived of 'Broadacre City,' the ultimate suburb where the automobile was king, and Le Corbusier projected 'Ville Radieuse,' the city of cruciform skyscrapers set down in open parkland...Robert Fishman tells the story of these visionary schemes with intelligence and sympathy....Here, we have a strong, clear explanation of the philosophical notions underlying the work of Howard, Wright and Le Corbusier.—Paul Goldberger, The New York Times—