As an activist, a thinker, and a writer, Jane Jacob observed patterns in the way cities were constructed in both physical and social aspects of their environments. For the first time in American history, a fresh and innovative, at the time radical, movement sprung up due to the observations and claims that Jacobs proposed in her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. During the 1950’s, modernism had already become an established (and universally accepted) ethos in American city planning. Jane Jacobs witnessed the shortcomings of the modernist city planning paradigms first-hand and became quickly renowned for her expertise in this field. Through her thorough and intensive research, Jacobs could develop a comprehensive and persuasive
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Simply making it beautiful by adding green spaces and brand-new buildings where historical and emotional ties were one present in the form of buildings, slums, recreational, and governmental buildings once stood. In Jacob’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she goes into detail on the verity on the fact that creating beautiful cities just for the sake of creating beautiful cities is manifesting a cycle of unsustainable destruction. In the late 1800’s, a court reporter and planner by the name of Ebenezer Howard proposed an idea called “Garden City”. Howard’s intention by this movement was to transition from complete urbanism to a new kind of urbanism that thoroughly integrated agriculture and nature in every aspect of that community. Beautifying a city from the outside in, and especially from a top-down view, even though it may seem “progressive” and “bold”, Jacob’s argues, “No matter how vulgarized or clumsy the design, how dreary and useless the open space… like a visible ego tells of one’s achievements. But as to how the city works, it tells, like the Garden City, nothing but lies.” …show more content…
Whereas today, parents struggle to get their children to play outside, the 1950’s and 60’s was a time in which the challenge was getting them to come back inside. As time went on, though, Jacobs came to make interesting observations about open spaces. In her research she found that the parts of city that exhibited an abundance of “beautiful”, open, green spaces were precisely the ones in which the least amount of people regularly made use of the sidewalks. She also found that oftentimes these open spaces were not being
Simply making it beautiful by adding green spaces and brand-new buildings where historical and emotional ties were one present in the form of buildings, slums, recreational, and governmental buildings once stood. In Jacob’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she goes into detail on the verity on the fact that creating beautiful cities just for the sake of creating beautiful cities is manifesting a cycle of unsustainable destruction. In the late 1800’s, a court reporter and planner by the name of Ebenezer Howard proposed an idea called “Garden City”. Howard’s intention by this movement was to transition from complete urbanism to a new kind of urbanism that thoroughly integrated agriculture and nature in every aspect of that community. Beautifying a city from the outside in, and especially from a top-down view, even though it may seem “progressive” and “bold”, Jacob’s argues, “No matter how vulgarized or clumsy the design, how dreary and useless the open space… like a visible ego tells of one’s achievements. But as to how the city works, it tells, like the Garden City, nothing but lies.” …show more content…
Whereas today, parents struggle to get their children to play outside, the 1950’s and 60’s was a time in which the challenge was getting them to come back inside. As time went on, though, Jacobs came to make interesting observations about open spaces. In her research she found that the parts of city that exhibited an abundance of “beautiful”, open, green spaces were precisely the ones in which the least amount of people regularly made use of the sidewalks. She also found that oftentimes these open spaces were not being