Product Description

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.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #709248 in Books
• Published on: 1982-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review


"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

Customer Reviews

Good subject matter, even better narrative
Although an interesting subject matter, the author does an amazing job using the narrative of the thinkers lives to cooincide with their belief system, the only problem is he probably could have done it in about 50 pages less, but overall its a good fast read