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All plans for any city designed within the City Beautiful movement made prolific use of white materials and finishes. The reasoning for such a dramatic finish was to further the original aim of this movement. Clearly such a finish when applied to an entire urban area creates a strikingly beautiful city; however it was hoped that the ‘White City’ in all its opulence would facilitate civic and moral rectitude, ridding these urban areas from their former lives of crime and unrest, and tempting wealthy persons to gentrify these renewed urban centres.

The movement made great use of architectural detailing normally reserved for cathedrals or strictly for the upper classes of society; though seemingly glutinous and purely aesthetic this had a greater moral value. Train Stations, Shops and Warehouses were all designed to the same level of detail, regardless if it was to be used by the wealthiest or poorest members of society. Moreover the extensive use of art and sculpture throughout the city attempted to create a vivid backdrop to the lives of all in the city. In doing this planners hoped that the radically new cities would not descend into bleak urban gloom, but would rather facilitate the growth of a positive democratic culture. Effectively planners were demonstrating that everything was possible for every person, regardless of wealth or cultural background[15]. Once again we see the use of this movement as more than urban planning, but as a beacon of American Exceptionalism and the American Dream.

Development of movement

Throughout the time of the City Beautiful movement there were protagonists to the movement. Most notably Louis Sullivan, a cornerstone of the Chicago school of architecture, rather damningly stated that the implications of the City Beautiful movement would result in “...no American architecture for Fifty years.”[16] A statement made due to the movements reliance on the theory and movements of European schools of design. This potential flaw was not to be condemning of the movement, as advocates of the city beautiful were quick to point out that European schools, such as L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, was one of the few in the world teaching architects to design with the then new materials of reinforced concrete and steel. Irrespective of one’s moral stance on the issue it was the education of American architects in Europe which allowed them to design many of the new buildings (Department Stores, Large Warehouses, Hotels) required by the USA in a manner appropriate to the City Beautiful movement.[17]

So what of this movement today? Inevitably this movement, though in principle was perfect for the revolutionised USA, it remained so for only a few decades. In the end too few were able to see the core values of the movement, the principle of urban composition in tandem with an appreciation of art, and the often symbolic and powerful effects this can have.[18] Instead what was seen was a revival of an archaic form of本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。