Talk:Broadacre City

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There is no train station in Broadacre City

Here is an edition of the article - by Douglas Boyd, KYMAK agent:

Broadacre City was a model city for American Democracy designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which, being misunderstood and misused, became the apotheosis of 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, land. It was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme by which population density would be one acre per person (maintained by Land 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 plots where most of the population might dwell.

The County Engineer will become the County Architect in order to assure expert planning and coordination of the vital work of Civil Engineers and other Design Professionals in the very complex process of City and Regional Planning. Wright, home-schooled to be an architect by his mother, studied Civil Engineering in college for lack of a course in architecture; there are well known architects who have degrees in civil engineering, eg., Malcolm Wells and Santiago Calatrava. Presently untrained non-architect politicians and developers are mishandling the Engineer and usurping the role of the Architect - brushing the architect aside, our over-lording politicians assume the role of the architect when they presume to direct the work of the engineer. It has put the Architect and Engineer in competition with each other rather than friendly cooperation; this has created havoc on the landscape. Wright's master plan or one like KYMAK would have to be adopted by Congress as a basis for federal funding in order to make the idea viable.(See Architecture).

Design and planning professionals now engaged in damage control, tend to feel exasperated that they are used like window dressing by the politicians to deceive the public. Politicians and developers were those who Wright often referred to as the "big money boys"; like children they are always more in a hurry to get what they want than to really do things right - as they say, "time is money". ..."For but one thought is in all, and that how to satisfy quickest Self and the need of the moment, regardless of what may come after.” (Goethe) Making big money is their goal, rather than developing an intrinsic culture for our new Nation – seeing the prevalence of Greek and Roman architecture, Wright wanted to create an American architecture reflecting our values of the liberty and sovereignty of the individual. It could be so much better if someone specially trained to plan and coordinate the building process, as the architect is, were in control – possibly as an elected official at that. It would not be so bad if politicians really knew what they were doing when it comes to building cities or could learn to trust the architect to guide them as they do in fiduciary relationships with other learned professionals, such as physicians or brain surgeons. That architects are learned professional is not too well understood it seems

Wright also often chided his fellow architects about their role in the matter – as in his 1949 AIA Gold Medal Speech when he said, “I've been right about a good many things. That's the basis of my arrogance. And it has a basis - that's one thing I can say for my arrogance. We can save ourselves. We're smart. We nave a certain rat-like perspicacity. But we have the same courage; and that's what's the matter. I don't know of a more cowardly...well, I'm getting too deep in here now, and I can't swear - not tonight. But we are certainly a great brand of cowardice in America. We've let all our great opportunities to live a spiritual life with great interior strength and nobility of purpose in mind go by the board... If we're ever going to get anything better, if we're ever going to come by a more honorable expression of a civilization such as the world is entitled to from us... It isn't the fault of institutions. It isn't the fault of any class. It isn't the fault of the big boys that make the money and make the blunders and shove us over the brink we spoke of a minute ago. No. How would they learn better? ...How are they going to find out? They can only find out by your disapproval. They can only find out by your telling the truth, first to yourselves, and then out loud wherever you can get a chance to tell it…. I think if we (architects) were to wake up and take a good look at ourselves, as ourselves – without trying to pass the buck without trying to blame other people for what really is our own shortcoming and our own lack of character we would be an example to the world that the world needs now. We wouldn’t be pursuing a cold war. We would be pursuing a great endeavor to plant, rear, and nurture a civilization. And we would have a culture that would convince the whole world. We’d have all the Russians in here on us, working for us - with us – not afraid that we were going to destroy them or destroy anybody else. It’s because of cowardice and political chicanery, because of the degradation to which we have fallen - as men”. Some of his fellows compared him to an Old Testament Prophet - possibly this was the main reason he was rejected by the establishment. Yet, he was a good natured man with a genuine sense of humor that could only come from one who was honest, courageous and as a matter of fact, humble.

Features of Broadacre City:

1. County Annex
2. Postal Service
3. Race Track
4. Sport fields
5. Sport Complex
6. Athletic clubs
7. Lake and stream
8. Farms
9. Luxury house
10. Park
11. Music garden
12. Health spa
13. Shopping center
14. Motel
15. Factory workers homes
16. Factories with dwellings above
17. Manufacturing
18. Travel center
19. Freeway
20. Industry
21. Vineyards and orchards
22. Office buildings
23. Small homes
24. Secondary schools
25. Churches
26. Guest houses
27. Agricultural research
28. Arboretum
29. Zoo
30. Aquarium
31. Exhibitions
31a. Beacon
32. Hotel
33. Country club
34. Hospital
35. Small industry
36. Smaller homes
37. Small apartments
38. Dairy
39. Kindergarten
40. Apartment houses
41. Commodious homes
42. Water supply
43. Professional school
44. County Architect
45. Small theater
46. Cabins
47. Larger homes
48. Observation point
49. Auto repair
50. Gas station
51. Library

52. Natural preserve

No private ownership of public needs. No public ownership of private needs.
No landlord and tenant - An acre of ground per person minimum by virtue of site value tax.
No "housing". No subsistence homesteads.
No traffic problem. No back and forth haul. No railroads. No grade crossings.
No street cars. Administration by radio and flight.
No poles or wires in sight. Streets are lighted at the curb. No headlights.
No ditches alongside the roads.
Roads are concave with drainage and utilities buried in median.
Tall buildings are isolated in parks.
Building design determined by the character and topography of the region.

To be continued...

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  • Wright, Frank Lloyd. When Democracy Builds. University of Chicago Press, 1945
  • Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Living City. New York, Horizon Press, 1958.
  • Wright, Frank Lloyd. Letters to Architects. Architectural Press, 1987.
  • Wright, Frank Lloyd. An Organic Architecture, (Sir George Watson Lectures) Lund Humphreys, London, 1939.
  • Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Future Of Architecture, Horizon Press, 1953.
  • List: http://www.pbs.org/flw/resources/pub_yr-0.html

Illustrations -

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