Garden City Case Study

1. In the midst of the 19th century, following the industrial revolution, many cities began to grow at an unprecedented rate. Due to this growth, sanitary concerns arose in the serried inner city. Locations including London, Chicago, New York were unable to appropriately house and provide infrastructure for their booming populations. In America, the preponderance of the slum inhabitants were immigrants, leading to increased marginalization compared to other locations, such as London. The health concerns burgeoning with the population boom led to a requirement of state intervention to prevent further spread of disease. During this time, the innovations of Edwin Chadwick, the designs of Frederick Law Olmstead, and the observations of Andrew Mearns
The Garden City concept, initially begotten by Ebenezer Howard, was never appropriately implemented according to his vision. Initially starting with his “Three Magnets” plan, this early design led to his vision of the “Social City” (Hall, 2002, Page 92). Designed to combat the problems that congestion was creating with public health, the garden city was intended to decentralize the city while create social and economic opportunities (Richert and Lapping, 1998, Page 125). Howard suggested 32,000 people on 1,000 acres, or 1.5 times the medieval density of London (Hall, 2002, Page 92). Surrounding the residential area would be a large greenbelt separating each of the nodes from one another. These greenbelts would also serve to limit the potential size of the garden city acting as a physical barrier to growth, like a present day urban growth boundary. The lowered overall density would combat the struggles of urban life prior to sanitary reform. Intended results would include better sanitation, cleaner air, and better aesthetics (Richert and Lapping, 1998, Page 125). While each polycentric node would have all of the economic opportunities of the traditional city, the existence of a means of transit able to link the nodes was critical to his
At this time, the lack of government intervention was leading to major health consequences in overcrowded areas lacking appropriate sanitation and housing. Ebenezer Howard intended to provide a lifestyle for the garden city residents in line with city life, with a greater focus on the health of the inhabitants. While Howard’s original design was never implemented, the model he created led to a number of experiments eventually emerging in the form of New Urbanism with the aid of Nolen (Stephenson, 2002, Page 113). A number of issues led to the failure of the design, all partly relating to the complexity of starting a city from the ground up. However, the lessons provided by Howard and those that followed in his footsteps provide lessons for contemporary urban