Broadacre's vast suburban landscape, seemingly scattered across an entire continent, anticipates the prevailing urban context, that eventually will shape the condition of architecture. With hindsight BROADACRE CITY (1932-1958) appears premonitory of current states. An assessment that still adds to the accumulative aura surrounding its initiator FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959).

Broadacre City, Frank Lloyd Wright's urban utopia for the U.S. continues to intrigue, as illustrated by Columbia University students in 1997. Their computer animation renders Wright's vision according to drawings entitled "THE LIVING CITY", published first in 1958.

1932 - 26 years earlier, at the age of 65, Frank Lloyd Wright has reached the end of his first carrier. Two years without commissions affect his finances badly, though the true personal and economical calamities of his life already lie behind him.

At the time (1932) Philip Johnson termes Frank Lloyd Wright: "[…] the greatest architect of the nineteenth century." VI.) 1

An insult, triggered off by the generation gap, but also by Wright's architecture. The International Style (named after a noted exhibition in same year, featuring Wright at MOMA - New York X.) 7) spearheads the Avant-Garde. Modernism has changed since Unity Temple 1906, Robie House 1908 and Imperial Hotel 1915-21.
Wright is deemed an outsider.

Europe sets the stage for Wright's comeback. Le Corbusier formulates his ideas for the future, designing a contemporary city for 3 million inhabitants. In 1922 the principles are clear. This city is dense, rational, organised; to put it in a nutshell - urban.

Wright's answer is as radical as it is diametrically opposed. Broadacre isn't a city; it is a landscape. Decentralised in organisation it is self-sufficient in supply, republican in constitution, and populated by auto - mobile citizens.

Centred on the homestead, the single family house, Broadacre sprawls.

Wright lives this Arcadian lifestyle with his apprentices he gathers around him. The "Taliesin Fellowship" puts the green republic to the test. Their aim is to pursue happiness.

Wright perceives himself and his rebellion as "an army under siege". The atmosphere in Taliesin at the time is described like this:

"It was not a civilized situation - it was a heroic one." VI.) 2

From this milieu emerges the plan for a community laying out their cities according to family values, spirituality and knowledge.

Everyone owns land for cultivation, at least one acre (4046,8m2, 165 by 264 Feet). The model plan covers four square miles.

Property is the economic basis.
Market economy - yes, but in the shape of trade by barter among proprietors. (Rent is synonymous for all ills in the contemporary city.) XI.) 9

Economy is considered to work like an agricultural fair. Its site is the huge marketplace. XII.) 10

Broadacre is a community without experts. Everyone does everything. Everyone's a farmer - industrial worker - artist: reminiscence of the "Arts and Crafts" movement from Wright's beginnings.

The ideal for labour is self-fulfilment.

There is no administration - no bureaucracy - but the architect, who plans the city and settles its affairs. He arranges who may own how many acres of land and where roads start and lead to, thus preventing property speculation as well as congestion.

Broadacre is a continuous metropolitan region of low density. Areas designated to serve similar purposes are allocated functionally (parallel along traffic systems of more than regional importance like monorail and motorway):
trade, entertainment, industry, agriculture, housing etc.. Arrangements are selective - idealized - but not exclusive.

The city starts with the single family house. Due to Broadacre's economical logic it is being built by oneself (in a DIY network).
Using standardized elements and partly prefabricated building modules it is fairly extendable (in Wright's terms "organic"). But first of all it is affordable, although money has almost no relevance in Broadacre. XII.) 10

The Usonian House as a typology evolves.

Wright time and time again takes up the concept for simple, cheap "low-cost-housing". Such as American System-Built Houses 1911-17, Quadruple Block Plan 1900, or Suntop Houses 1939-40.
Several alternative variations result from the Willey Houses, of which some actually get built. The propagated cost limit of 5000 dollars however, was never kept. [ ...]

Mobility and information conveying systems are prerequisites for Broadacre.

Wright esteems the importance of "communication machines" as follows:

"Everywhere now human voice and vision are annihilating distance - penetrating walls. Wherever the citizen goes (even as he goes) he has information, lodging and entertainment. He may now be within easy reach of general or immediate distribution of everything he needs to have or to know: All that he may require as he lives becomes not only more worthy of him and his freedom but convenient to him now wherever he may choose to make his home."IX.) 3

The notion of an aircraft in everyone's front yard is a convincing image. (Illustration 13) Total mobility is inevitable.

The road is a symbol of individual freedom. Cars aren't simply contemporary or modern, they represent democracy itself. The technology to cross and to communicate long distance facilitates:

air, light and freedom of movement. IX.) 4

Expansions are in vogue, at least in America. 'Democracity' Abb. 15 is on display at the New York World's Fair V.) 8 in 1939.
Resolving the volume of traffic as well as coming to terms with prosperity shift focus. Horizontality and mobility are at the centre of attention in master plan simulations of the time.

By World War II at the latest, "The future isn't what it used to be." V.) 5

Instead of improving social order to achieve happiness for mankind, we apply technology to do so. Before, the new society guaranteed to handle progress reasonably - now advanced technology and science (considered an instrument to control these advancements) are trusted to solve the contradictions of current states.

Science Fiction replaces Utopia

Thus finally, projecting the future in architectural terms lacks all meaning. Urban visions are merely inhabited by monuments - crowded by samples, taken from architectural magazines.

By 1958 Broadacre remaines true to its socioeconomic concept, but generates different images. It sells via monuments, Frank Lloyd Wright's monuments.
The 'air-rotor' [helicopter] becomes a trademark.

Wright's ensemble of monuments is brought to life in 1958 by drawings that have shaped the conclusive 'image' of Broadacre City
- representing the work of a lifetime:

1. Butterfly Wing Bridge, Spring Green, Wisconsin 1947
   
   
2. Rogers Lacy Hotel, Dallas 1946-47
   
   
3. Beth Sholom Synagoge, Pensilvania 1953-59
   
   
4. Twin Suspension Bridges and Point Park Civic Center, Pittsburgh 1947
   
   
5. Sports Club and Play Resort for Huntington Hartford, Hollywood 1947
   
   
6. Self-Service Garage, for Edgar J. Kaufmann, Pittsburgh 1949
   (To the right of illustration 20; click image to enlarge)
   
   
7. Automobile Objective and Planetarium for Gordon Strong, Maryland 1924 - 25
   
   
8. Marin County Civic Centre, San Rafael, California, 1957 - 70
   (In the background of illustration 20 between c, b and e; as well as an inspiration in illustration 21)
9. [...]

Still, the conclusive statement by Robert Fishman's 1977 analysis of Broadacre City constitutes the keenest critique possible.

"[…] The plan was democratic not because it had been debated in a legislature or approved in an election but because it was representative of the nation's deepest feelings […]" VII.) 6

References:

1. Arthur Drexler, THE DRAWINGS OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - 1962 Bramhall House, New York
   Abb.01 Abb.19 Abb.20 Abb.21 'Broadacre City' THE LIVING CITY - 1958, Frank Lloyd Wright
2. Neil Levine, THE ARCHITECTURE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - 1996 Princeton University Press
3. Bruno Zevi, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - 1994 (1979 Zanichelli, Bologna)
   Abb.09 'Broadacre City' Model 1934 - 35, Frank Lloyd Wright Topview of the model [page 144]
   Abb.14 'Broadacre City' Model 1934 - 35, Frank Lloyd Wright
   top: Section D: one of the markets [page 143]
   bottom both: Housingmodels - house for two cars, house for three cars [page 145, captions re-translated from German]
4. Brigitte Felderer (Editor), 'WUNSCHMASCHINE WELTERFINDUNG' - 1996 Springer-Verlag, Vienna
   Abb.18 'Clean Air Park' [published cover of 'This Week', June 21,1959, watercolor and ink] by Fred Freeman
   www.fabiofeminofantascience.org
   
5. Joseph J. Corn, Brian Horrigan, YESTERDAYS TOMORROWS; Past Visions of the American Future - 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (1984 Smithsonian Institution, New York ) http://books.google.com/
   5 (V) Arthur C. Clarke (co-author of '2001: A Space Odyssey' 1968) [page V]
   Abb.13 [page 71] 'Crystal House' - 1934, George Fred Keck
   for 'A Century of Progress Exposition' in Chicago 1933 - 34
   Compare: 'House of Tomorrow' 1933 (also by Keck at the same fair) "View through hangar door showing airplane in place. […]"
   Abb.15 [page 45) 'Democracity' - 1939, New York World's Fair
   "Created by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, Democracity [set in 2039] was essentially an updated version of ideas set forth at the turn of the century by British social thinker Ebenezer Howard [who] called for the decentralization of population and industry by the creation of garden cities. […] Democracity featured an urban core with tall, widely spaced buildings; separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic; carefully delineated industrial and residential zones; and a generous greenbelt of farms and parks."
   http://morrischia.com/
   http://davidszondy.com/
   http://www.fathom.com/
   Abb.16 [page 100] 'Personal Helicopter' by Alex S. Tremulis, 1944
   Abb.17 [page 107] 'Moonport' by Jim Powers from the series 'Life in the Year 2000', for Ford Motor Company, 1956
   www.fabiofeminofantascience.org
   8 (Compare pages 48-49) The New York World's Fair of 1939 themed 'Building The World of Tomorrow' also featured 'Highways and Horizons' [Futurama I], a vision for 1960 according to Norman Bel Geddes and General Motors as an alternative (?) draft:
   http://xroads.virginia.edu/ (Full length Quicktime Movie)
   http://www.archive.org/ (Various formats)
   http://www.youtube.com/
   http://columbia.edu/ (Images)
   http://fabiofeminofantascience.org/ (Images)
   Also featured at the 1939 World's Fair was 'The City', a documentary by Willard van Dyke and Ralph Steiner. Part 1 and 2 available from http://video.google.de/
   
6. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - 1997 The American Lives Film Project, Inc.
   1 Compare: Philip Johnson 'The Seven Crutches of Modern Architecture' 1954
   2
   Abb.03 Frank Lloyd Wright (at Iowa County fair, 1st of September 1933, filmed by Alden B. Dow)
   Abb.05 Abb.06 Abb.07 Taliesin Fellowship (filmed by Alden B. Dow in 1933; part 1 and 2 available from www.youtube.com)
   
   
   Abb.08 Wright in Taliesin
   Abb.10 'Rosenbaum House' 1939 (Usonian House)
   books.google.com [page 178] 2 [page 18] maps.google.com Video
   Abb.11 'Jacobs House' 1936 (Usonian House)
   books.google.com [page 19] maps.google.com Video
7. Robert Fishman, URBAN UTOPIAS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier - 1977 Basic Books, New York
   http://books.google.at/
   6 chapter 15 'Prophetic Leadership' [page 144]
   Abb.04 'Contemporary City' Plan - 1922, Le Corbusier
   Abb.12 'Broadacre City' Modell 1934 - 35, Frank Lloyd Wright
   Top labelled: "Typical home for sloping ground"
   Bottom labelled: "The circus for county fairs and pageantry, behind which stands a 'monumental pole' for announcing festivities."
   Right labelled: "High-rise apartments for 'the city-dweller as yet unlearned where ground is concerned.' "
   All three from 'Architectural Record' 1935 [Fishman, between pages 114 to 115]
8. 'USONIA - FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S VISION FOR AMERICA' rendered by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Digital Design Lab - 1997 (Britschgi, Hsu, Schafer, Strang …)
   Abb.02
9. Peter Zellner, 'The City Disappears : Motorised Speed, Human Mobility and Electrical Communication in Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City' - 1998 published in DAIDALOS 69/70 1998, Berlin […]
   3 (page 74) According to Peter Zellner allready 1935 [German translation, no reference given, but 'almost' identical to: 'The Living City' by Frank Lloyd Wright, published by Horizon Press, 1958, page 122 - 125]
   4 (Compare page 74) In Peter Zellner's essay the typical citizen of Broadacre is regarded to be paradoxly situated between traditional nomadic lifestyle and interconnected global [bourgeois] citizenship.
10. Compare: 'ARCHITEKTUR THEORIE von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart', 2003 (Das 20. Jahrhundert: Gilbert Lupfer, Jürgen Paul, Paul Sigel) Taschen (Page 714-721)
    7 Wright protested, called the exhibition propaganda and threatened to withdraw [his model of 'House on the Mesa' … ]. ('Modern Architecture: International Exhibition' in the Museum of Modern Art - New York 1932, prepared by Philip Johnson)
    Compare: http://books.google.at/ [page 45]
11. Compare: John Sergeant FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S USONIAN HOUSES - 1984 Paperback Edition, Page 122 (First published 1976 in New York, by Whitney Library of Design)
    Also compare: David G. De Long (Editor) FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: DIE LEBENDIGE STADT - 1998, Page 33,40, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
    9 Wright refers to the economic theories of: Henry George and Silvio Gesell;
    and (according to John Sergeant) is ascribed to influences ranging from: Ralph Borsodi, Edward Bellamy, Peter Kropotkin, Ebenezer Howard, William Morris, H. G. Wells, … to Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman … even Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Fourier, Pierre Joseph Proudhon … (but not Karl Marx, as Wright emphasised in 1943)
    
    [Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen I might add]
    
    Highly popular in the 30ties, contemporary reception lacks/avoids fundamental socio-economic discourse. This paper (likewise) marks Broadacre for the transition of utopian designs from "naturally" social projects to technological matters of course. [added 2007]
12. 10 ^ Since our [own] financial meltdown in 2008 [1929] micro-financing, complementary currencies and barter [systems] are considered profitable [again]. Thus sceptical undercurrents over Broadacre's economic objectives have become inappropriate. [added 2009]

www.pbs.org
membres.lycos.fr/boscha/desurbanisme
especially 2www.fabiofeminofantascience.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Broadacre_City
pontilly2007.files.wordpress.com (PDF 2007)
www.uky.edu
courses.washington.edu/ (PDF)
http://www.nvc.vt.edu/ (PDF)
http://www.steinerag.com/ [detailed bibliography]

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Site Map

more on Broadacre:

• Broadacre City history and context; the model and its structure; illustrations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
  
• Drawings of related low cost housing schemes (supplement):
  Quadruple Block Plan; Willey House; Suntop Houses; Cloverleaf Project; Galesburg Country Homes; American System-Built Houses
  
• Additional Drawings:
  Huntington Hartford Play Resort; Gordon Strong Automobile Objective; Rogers Lacy Hotel
  
• All dates according to source.

File log:

• Outlining Broadacre City became necessary in the course of my urban diploma project 16/3 in 1999. Put online the same year in German, this 'preliminary' English translation became available in 2007.
• Context / related schemes (2007/2008)
• All links to http://contentdm.unl.edu/ [University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries] have been updated (25.11.2008)
• Links to http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ [Columbia University in the City of New York] added (2.8.2009)
• Last changes: 19th of February 2010
• External links are being updated and augmented regularly. Suggestions are very welcome!