The twentieth century saw a grand procession of promises for the
city. The great modern architect Le Corbusier dictated cities of
glittering white towers planted in green parks, Frank Lloyd
proposed cities with no downtown, cities spread across the
countryside with each family on its homestead, and skyscraper
utopians of the 1920s promised paradise on the one-hundredth floor
with our airplane hangared next door.One thing was sure: the city
of tomorrow would put to shame the city of yesterday. Another thing
was certain, too: we would be happier, more peaceful (and
productive) people. Here is Le Corbusier: "Free, man tends to
geometry." And if we followed the "radiant harmony" of his
geometry, the world's cities could become "irresistible forces
stimulating collective enthusiasm, collective action, and general
joy and pride, and inconsequence individual happiness everywhere .
. . the modern world would emerge . . . and would beam around,
powerful, happy, believing."There were others who promised
deliverance through their brands of architecture: the right angle,
the curvilinear road in the park, the tower of glass. Each
fervently preached that his was the magic geometry that, like
tumblers on a lock, would open the way to the good life. Cosmopolis
is a pattern book of expectations, generously illustrated with a
gathering of plans from the City Beautiful to the Italian
Futurists, The Cite Industrielle, World's Fair utopias, science
fiction visions, and the grand plans of the Moderns. Cosmopolis is
the story of the ideal city we never achieved, and the great plans
that went into making-over precincts of our urban language.
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