NORTH

AMERICA

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

INTRODUCTI
ON
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 areas 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 .

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 countryside.
The advent of urban rail systems
and roadways allowed for this
upper-class migration to the
suburbs. Those elite who stayed in
the city were surrounded by poverty
and feared for their safety, many
city- dwellers were desperate for
money and food. In the center of
Washington, D.C., 18,978 people
lived in 303 alleys surrounding
upper-class townhouses (Rose).

The City Beautiful Movement, lead by the

middle and upper classes, was meant to deal
with these rising issues of sanitation, crime,
and over-population of cities. In the height of
the Gilded Age, these reformers felt the best
way to deal with these issues was through
consumption and creation of beauty. They
felt that classic beauty of the city would
inspire feelings of civic loyalty and moral
rectitude in the impoverished that would
help to lower crime rates. Uncultivated
backyards and 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

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 commissioned to design a monument
marking the end of the Smoky Hill Trail.

CAPITOL BUILDING IN
DENEVER

BURNHAM PLAN, CHICAGO

RIVER INTERSECTION BY DANIEL BURNHUM

The 1909 Plan of Chicago of 1909 was coauthored 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 plans 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