In the history of city planning, the dichotomy between the aesthetic aspirations of the City Beautiful and City Practical movements is overstated. The aesthetic impulse did not disappear but persisted as an important thread through the development of comprehensive planning approaches into the 1920s. The nexus between beauty and utility was negotiated and expressed across four main discourses: broad social improvement, aesthetic functionality, economic rationality, and holistic design. Ultimately, beauty became wedded to utility within the very nature of the comprehensive city plan itself. The work of the leading city planner John Nolen is central to an understanding of these historic continuities and informed the early evolution of city planning theory and practice. Nolen’s challenge to the City Beautiful paradigm, while still retaining an artistic sensibility, reaestheticizes scholars’ appreciation of the City Practical.
Eldridge Lovelace, Harland Bartholomew: His contributions to American Urban Planning ( Urbana: University of Illinois , 1992), A-14.
2.
Quoted by John Nolen, Planning Projects for Elkhart, Indiana, 1923, 17, John Nolen Papers, acc #2903, box 241, Kroch Library, Cornell University (hereafter Nolen Papers).
3.
William H. Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 286.
4.
Jon A.Peterson, "The Birth of Organized City Planning in the United States, 1909-1910," Journal of theAmerican Planning Association 75 (2009): 123-33, 128.
5.
Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, 285-90.
6.
John S.Pipkin, "‘Chasing Rainbows’ in Albany: City Beautiful, City Practical 1900-1925,"Journal of Planning History 7 ( 2008): 327-53.
7.
This listing consolidated is from Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, 75ff. 78-86, and William H. Wilson, "The Ideology, Aesthetics and Politics of the City Beautiful movement," in Anthony Sutcliffe, ed., The Rise of Modern Urban Planning 1800-1914 (London: Mansell, 1980), 165-98.
8.
This study both informs and develops from the conceptual framework in Robert Freestone, Designing Australia’s Cities: Culture, Commerce and the City Beautiful 1900-1930 (New York: Routledge, 2007).
9.
Rob Cowan, The Dictionary of Urbanism (Tisbury, UK: Streetwise Press, 2005), 28.
10.
Building (Sydney), April 1915, 59.
11.
David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature (1739; repr., London : Dent, 1964), pt. 3, sec. 1.
12.
Michael H. Lang , Designing Utopia: John Ruskin’s Urban Vision for Britain and America (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1999), 20.
13.
Building (Sydney), November 1912, 128. This same article was reproduced in Building in February 1915.
14.
Quoted in Building, November 1914, 9, 11.
15.
Oliver W.Larkin, Art and Life in America (New York: Rinehart, 1949), 282.
16.
Henry F. May, The End of American Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time 1912- 1917 (1960; repr., New York: Columbia University Press, 1994). On the artistic movement of the 1870s and 1880s, also see Doreen Bolger Burke et al., In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement ( New York: Rizzoli, 1987 ).
17.
Quoted in Larkin, Art and Life, 284.
18.
John S.Nettlefold, "The Economics of Town Planning", Garden Cities and Town Planning, January (1916), 5.
19.
Quotations from Wilson, City Beautiful Movement , 82, 83.
20.
Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, chap. 1.
21.
P.G. Mackintosh , "‘The Development of Higher Urban Life’ and the Geographic Imagination: Beauty, Art, and Moral Environmentalism in Toronto, 1900-1920," Journal of Historical Geography 31 (2005): 688-722.
22.
Building (Sydney), September 1917, 13.
23.
Wilson, "Ideology, Aesthetics and Politics,"173.
24.
Neil Harris , "Urban Tourism and the Commercial City," quoted in William R. Taylor, ed., Inventing Times Square (New York: Russell Sage, 1991), 69.
25.
Guy Kirkham , "The Importance and Value of Civic Centers," in Frederick L. Ford, ed., The Grouping of Public Buildings (Hartford, CT : Municipal Art Society, 1904): 49
26.
Building (Sydney), April 1911, 13.
27.
Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, 83.
28.
Emily Talen , New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures ( New York: Routledge , 2005), 122.
29.
Mel Scott , American City Planning since 1890 ( Berkeley: University of California Press , 1969), 68.
30.
Robinson, The Improvement of Towns and Cities (1901), quoted in Talen, New Urbanism and American Planning, 75.
31.
Scott, American City Planning since 1890, 68.
32.
Western Architect , April 1910, from John W. Reps, "Urban Planning, 1794-1918: An International Anthology of Articles, Conference Papers, and Reports,"http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/homepage.htm.
33.
George B.Burnap, Parks: Their Design, Equipment and Use ( Philadelphia : Lippincott, 1916 ), 58.
34.
Jon A.Peterson, The Birth of City Planning in the United States 1840-1917 ( Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 181.
35.
Building (Sydney), September 1932, 21.
36.
Robert Freestone , "Planning for Profit in Urban Australia 1900-1930: A Descriptive Prolegomenon,"Antipode13, no. 1(1981): 15-26.
37.
Quoted in Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., "Village Improvement,"The Atlantic, June 1905, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/190506/olmsted-village/2.
38.
Charles Mulford Robinson, "Notes and Comments: A Protest That Is Timely,"Architectural Record27 (February 1910): 203.
39.
Building (Sydney), April 1911, 15.
40.
Ocean Howell , "Play Pays: Urban Land Politics and Playgrounds in the United States, 1900-1930,"Journal of Urban History34 (2008): 961-94.
41.
Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, 288.
42.
Wilson, City Beautiful Movement, 290; Peterson, "Birth of Organized City Planning,"131.
43.
Susan L. Klaus, "Efficiency, Economy, Beauty: The City Planning Reports of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., 1905-1915," Journal of the American Planning Association57 (1991): 456-70.
44.
Ibid., 456.
45.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. , "City Planning," in Proceedings of the Second National Conference on City Planning and Problems of Congestion (Boston: National Conference on City Planning, 1910), 30, reproduced at http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/olmst_16.htm .
46.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., "Report to the Committee on Improving and Beautifying Utica" (Utica, NY: Chamber of Commerce, 1908), 9.
47.
Klaus, "Efficiency, Economy, Beauty,"462.
48.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. , "Introduction," in John Nolen, ed., City Planning (New York : Appleton, 1917), 2.
49.
Kristen Schaffer , "Daniel H. Burnham: Urban Ideals and the Plan of Chicago" (PhD diss., Cornell University , 1993).
50.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 219.
51.
Talen, New Urbanism and American Planning, 126.
52.
R. BruceStephenson, Visions of Eden: Environmentalism, Urban Planning, and City Building in St. Petersburg, Florida 1900-1995 (Columbus : Ohio State University Press, 1997), 111.
53.
Harland Bartholomew , "The Principles of City Planning,"American City26 (1922 ): 457.
54.
Stephenson, Visions of Eden, 112.
55.
Karl B.Lohmann, Principles of City Planning (New York : John Wiley, 1931), 302.
56.
Ibid., 308.
57.
Peterson, "Birth of Organized City Planning," 128.
58.
John Hancock , "John Nolen: A Bibliographical Record of Achievement" (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University , Program in Urban and Regional Studies, 1976), 16-17.
59.
New York Times, February 19, 1937, 19.
60.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 288.
61.
John Hancock , "John Nolen: New Towns in Florida 1922-1929," Foundations: The New City1 ( 1991): 71-72.
62.
John Hancock , "John Nolen: The background of a pioneer planner," in Donald Krueckeberg, ed., The American Planner: Biographies and Reflections ( New York: Methuen, 1983), 47.
63.
Charles Warren , "John Nolen and the New Synthesis in American City Planning," in John Nolen, New Towns for Old (1927; repr., Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005), xxiv.
64.
"City Planning," c1917, 1, unpublished article for the Municipal Encyclopaedia, typescript, Nolen Papers, box 1. Also see his New Ideals in the Planning of Cities, Towns and Villages ( New York: American City Bureau, 1919), 10.
65.
Nolen, New Towns for Old, 11.
66.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 206.
67.
John Nolen, Remodelling Roanoke (Boston: 1907), 17.
68.
"Civic Art and the Civic Spirit," notes for lecture in New York for the League for Political Education, May 1934, typescript, Nolen Papers, box 14.
69.
"Order, Beauty and Welfare in European Cities," paper for the Garden Club of America, 1933, typescript, 8, Nolen Papers, box 1.
70.
Hancock, "John Nolen: The background of a pioneer planner," 46.
71.
"City Planning and the Civic Spirit,"League of Virginia Municipalities, September 1912, typescript, 10, Nolen Papers, box 2.
72.
John Hancock , "What Is Fair Must Be Fit: Drawings and Plans by John Nolen, American City Planner,"Lotus International50 (1986): 31.
73.
Witold Rybczynski , A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century (New York : Scribner, 1999), 22.
74.
Frederick Law Olmsted (1881), quoted in S. S. Sutton, Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes/Frederick Law Olmsted (New York: De Capo, 1997), 208.
75.
John Nolen, Montclair: The Preservation of Its Natural Beauty and Its Improvement as a Residence Town (1919), 14, quoted from the June 1905 article by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. on "Village Improvement" that reproduces a manuscript by his father.
76.
Stephenson, Visions of Eden, 40.
77.
"Twenty Years of City Planning Progress in the United States,"National Conference on City Planning, 1927, presidential address, 20, Nolen Papers, box 1.
78.
Olmsted, "Introduction," 18.
79.
John Nolen, in discussion, Noulan Cauchon, "Hexagonal Planning, Traffic Interceptor and Orbit," American Society of Civil Engineers, 1927, 79-80, Nolen Papers, box 56.
80.
John Nolen, "City Planning and the Civic Spirit," League of Virginia Municipalities , September 1912, typescript, Nolen Papers, box 2.
81.
"Relationship of Landscape Architecture to City Planning,"Department of Architecture, MIT, November 1933 , 4, Nolen Papers, box 15.
82.
John Nolen , "The Local Survey as a Basis for City Planning Studies," City Plan1, 2 (June 1915): 13.
83.
"Fayetteville," May 11, 1920, 1, Nolen Papers, box 14.
84.
Nolen, New Ideals, 46.
85.
See, e.g., "Recent Town Planning in Florida," n.d., c1925, typescript, Nolen Papers, box 2.
86.
Hancock, "John Nolen: New Towns in Florida," 78.
87.
John Nolen , "Comprehensive City Plan, Dubuque, Iowa," September 1936, 71.
88.
"Report on Comprehensive City Plan for Sarasota, Florida," 1924, typescript, 9, Nolen Papers, box 19.
89.
Nolen, Montclair, 16.
90.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 207. Also see Warren, "John Nolen," xliii-xliv; and Brandy Savarese, "Making the Railroad Beautiful, Roanoke, Virginia, 1880-1950" (paper, Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference, Washington, DC, 2001).
91.
John Nolen, San Diego: A Comprehensive Plan for Its Improvement ( Boston , 1908), 3.
92.
Ibid., 6.
93.
David V.Mollenhoff, Madison: A History of the Formative Years ( Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1982 ), 347.
94.
John Nolen, Madison: A Model City (Boston, 1911), 124.
95.
Warren, "John Nolen," xlvii.
96.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 208
97.
John Nolen , "Order and Beauty in State and City" (address, annual meeting of the Vermont State Chamber of Commerce , Burlington, June 5, 1930), Nolen Papers, box 56.
98.
Bruce Stephenson , "Sacro Bosco: John Nolen and the Arcadian Ideal" (paper, Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference, Coral Gables, FL , November 2005), 3.
99.
"The Civic Awakening" (lecture, Northampton , January 25, 1910), typescript, 2, Nolen Papers, box 2.
100.
"Relationship of Landscape Architecture to City Planning," 5.
101.
"The Town Beautiful" (address, Athol, MA , February 12, 1913), Nolen Papers, box 2.
102.
James M. Mayo, War Memorials as Political Landscape ( New York: Praeger, 1988 ).
103.
"Town Planning and War Memorial" (address, Gardner, MA, December 6, 1919), typescript, 4, Nolen Papers, box 14.
104.
"Outdoor Art" (address before the Afternoon Club, Gardner, MA, February 1908), typescript, Nolen Papers, box 14. There are similar comments in other papers, for example, in a 1911 address, "The Appreciative Study of Outdoor Art," 2-3, Nolen pamphlets, acc #6337, box 2, Kroch Library, Cornell University. The argument was also put in "City Planning and the Civic Spirit" (address, annual meeting of the American Civic Association, Cincinnati, November 1909), from La Follette’s 9 (n.d.), Nolen Papers, box 2.
105.
"New Ideals in the Planning of Modern Cities," prepared for The Scholastic, May 1928, 2, Nolen Papers, box 3.
106.
"City in Wisconsin," c1910, typescript, 5, Nolen Papers, box 2.
"The Planning of Administrative Areas, Civic Centres Etc," November 1929, MIT, City Planning Lectures , Nolen Papers, box 15. Also see Nolen, New Ideals, 82.
110.
"Planning a City for the People, Schenectady, New York,"1913 , typescript, 30-31, and A Penny a Week for Parks and Playgrounds, Nolen Papers, box 19.
111.
Peterson, Birth of City Planning, 47.
112.
Howell, "Play Pays," 983.
113.
John Nolen and Henry V. Hubbard, Parkways and Land Values (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1937 ), 127-28.
114.
John Nolen, "The Place of the Beautiful in the City Plan" (paper, National Conference on City Planning, Springfield, MA, June 1922), 6.
115.
Ibid., 15.
116.
Ibid., 12.
117.
Stephenson, Visions of Eden, 43, 45.
118.
Bruce Stephenson , "The Roots of the New Urbanism: John Nolen’s Garden City Ethic,"Journal of Planning History1 (2002): 99-123; and "Halting Sprawl: Designing Cities to Connect People and Preserve Nature," Forum ( Florida Humanities Council; Fall 2007): 6-10.
