The Greenbelt Experiment
The town of Greenbelt, Maryland is more than just a place to live, it was
an experiment to find solutions for social and economic problems of the
time. Greenbelt wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the existence of
bad the economical conditions of the thirties. Greenbelt was a
product of
the New Deal, a program used by Franklin Roosevelt to pull America out of
the Depression. The town of Greenbelt was chiefly built to give
solutions to housing and unemployment problems. The man most responsible
for Greenbelt was Rexford G. Tugwell, one of Roosevelt's most trusted
advisors. It was his confidence in the
suburban ideal that pushed him to go forth with the plan. However, the
financial burden of constructing Greenbelt detracted from the liklihood
that private enterprise would ever attempt such a venture, and Tugwell
got negative reviews. The purpose of this project is to examine the
economic goals of building Greenbelt, and to see how this played into the
intitial perception of the town.
Return to
Portfolio