Back in the
1920's
Americans sought a need for place where they can escape the city. They
needed some place that was cleaner, safer, and a better environment to
raise a family. The Resettlement Administration, headed by Rexford
Tugwell, recognized this and began
to fulfill these people's needs. The public was suffering from the
consequences of the Great Depression in the 1920's.
This project, as part of the New Deal program, was to
provide a community for the low-income families of that era. The
Administration's
goals included
building towns that would
give people what they wanted and what they needed to make a great
community. As a result, greenbelt towns were constructed. The
significance
of a greenbelt town extends far beyond its own boundaries. Every growing
metropolis should, if it is wisely planned, develop a chain of similar
suburban communities around its borders. They would offer an opportunity
for orderly efficient expansion. Their greenbelts, linked together, would
form continuous permanent open spaces around the city, protecting it and
each suburb from overcrowding and sprawling, haphazard suburban
development and encroaching industries.
The first step in
planning
the new town is determining the best cities for the location of this
project. It was necessary to examine the economic background of the
hundred largest cities in the United States. Research men assembled all
pertinent material that they could lay their hands on. It included such
data as the rate of population growth, the number of persons employed in
industry, the wages paid out in manufacturing and distributing
industries, and wholesale and retail sales. Records were made of the
trends from 1900 to 1935(Star, 1935). The
composite experience of
these 100 cities was used as a criterion with which to compare the records
of any one individual city. On this basis, a number of cities which
showed up particularly well were chosen for further investigation. These
cities selected for further analysis were those which had shown a steady
economic growth, without great booms and without severe slumps. Special
consideration was also given to those cities which showed a large
proportionate volume of manufacturing, which had a high percentage of the
population employed in industry, and which enjoyed good wage levels(Ibid).
Diversity of industry and
occupations was another economic factor to receive careful attention. It
was considered wise to give preference to those cities which had a rather
wide diversity of employment(Arch Record, 1936).
Such a condition would tend to
add to the economic stability of the community. Diversity of employment
also reduced the possible chance that any subsidy involved in the
providing of low-rent housing would develop into an indirect subsidy of
low wages. Cities which showed the
best
rating in accordance with these standards were then visited by industrial
engineers who made investigations of the present conditions of these
cities, and their prospects of future development. The outskirts of the
cities, in which the town would be located, were examined to see to what
extent subdivision had already taken place. Excessive development of this
type was considered prejudicial to the success of a project, because the
result would be to drive land values too high for any locations that might
be near enough to existing opportunities for
employment(Star,
1935). Moreover, the
need for large blocks of land made it impossible to plan a greenbelt town
in a heavily subdivided community.
After the number of
cities
had been narrowed down, one of the cities selected was Washington D.C. A
town just outside of the city was chosen and this site came to be known as
Greenbelt, Maryland. It fulfilled all the requirement that the
Resettlement Administration was looking for to build their 'Tugwellian
Utopia'. This site presented three
advantages. It led to considerable economies in the arrangement of
streets, water supply and sewer lines. it also made possible an
orientation of houses which takes full advantage of sunshine and
prevailing winds and it required a minimum of clearing(Ibid). The next
step was to figure out how Greenbelt's layout plan
would
take form.Tom Choi
focuses on and analyzes the architecture of
Greenbelt.
| Greenbelt's Layout | Karen's Homepage | Virtual Greenbelt | American Suburbia |
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| Other Images | Analysis | Growing Up American | |
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