Jody Beck – författare

"A model city, the hope of democracy" – John Nolen on his suggested plans for Madison, Wisconsin

This book connects John Nolen''s political and social visions with his design proposals by analyzing his extensive writings, personal correspondence and some of his most significant works. While John Nolen is best known as a city planner, he trained as a landscape architect and used the titles ''landscape architect'' and ''city planner'' interchangeably throughout his career. A prolific practitioner, he was engaged in nearly 400 projects throughout the United States between 1905 and 1936, including town planning, industrial housing, state and city parks, new towns and regional planning.

Focusing particularly on several projects central to Nolen’s career including Madison (WI), Mariemont (OH), Venice (FL) and Penderlea (NC), Beck investigates the ideologies that underpinned Nolen’s work. This is a rare look at a key figure in the development of 20th century American cities.

"A model city, the hope of democracy" – John Nolen on his suggested plans for Madison, Wisconsin

This book connects John Nolen''s political and social visions with his design proposals by analyzing his extensive writings, personal correspondence and some of his most significant works. While John Nolen is best known as a city planner, he trained as a landscape architect and used the titles ''landscape architect'' and ''city planner'' interchangeably throughout his career. A prolific practitioner, he was engaged in nearly 400 projects throughout the United States between 1905 and 1936, including town planning, industrial housing, state and city parks, new towns and regional planning.

Focusing particularly on several projects central to Nolen’s career including Madison (WI), Mariemont (OH), Venice (FL) and Penderlea (NC), Beck investigates the ideologies that underpinned Nolen’s work. This is a rare look at a key figure in the development of 20th century American cities.

This book examines three landmark utopian visions central to 20th century landscape architectural, planning, and architectural theory.

The period between the 1890s and the 1940s was a fertile time for utopian thinking. Significant geographic shifts of large populations; radically altered relations between capital and labor; rapid technological developments; large investments in transportation and energy infrastructure; and repetitive economic disruptions motivated many individuals to wholly reimagine society – including the connections between social relations and the built environment. Landscape and Utopia examines the role of landscapes in the political imaginations of the Garden City, the Radiant City, and Broadacre City. Each project uses landscapes to propose a reconstruction of the relationships between land, labor, and capital but - while the projects are well-known – the role played by landscapes has been largely left unexamined. Similarly, the radical anti-capitalism that underpinned each project has similarly been, for the most part, left out of contemporary discussions. This book sets these projects within a historical and philosophical context and opens a discussion on the role of landscapes in society today.

This book will be a must-read for instructors, students, and researchers of the history and theory of landscape architecture, planning, and architecture as well as utopian studies, cultural and social history, and environmental theory.

This book examines three landmark utopian visions central to 20th century landscape architectural, planning, and architectural theory.

The period between the 1890s and the 1940s was a fertile time for utopian thinking. Significant geographic shifts of large populations; radically altered relations between capital and labor; rapid technological developments; large investments in transportation and energy infrastructure; and repetitive economic disruptions motivated many individuals to wholly reimagine society – including the connections between social relations and the built environment. Landscape and Utopia examines the role of landscapes in the political imaginations of the Garden City, the Radiant City, and Broadacre City. Each project uses landscapes to propose a reconstruction of the relationships between land, labor, and capital but - while the projects are well-known – the role played by landscapes has been largely left unexamined. Similarly, the radical anti-capitalism that underpinned each project has similarly been, for the most part, left out of contemporary discussions. This book sets these projects within a historical and philosophical context and opens a discussion on the role of landscapes in society today.

This book will be a must-read for instructors, students, and researchers of the history and theory of landscape architecture, planning, and architecture as well as utopian studies, cultural and social history, and environmental theory.