The City Beautiful Movement

Abstract

The City Beautiful movement was a short-lived, but important movement that helped usher in the formal discipline of city planning in the United States in the early 20th century. Combining a cautious optimism with the impulse for reform that defined the Progressive Era, the City Beautiful sought through comprehensive planning and European-inspired architecture to change the way cities were developing during the height of the Industrial Revolution. In the modern day, the City Beautiful movement is not well-known; nonetheless, its impact on cities like Washington, D.C. and Chicago point to an important influence in modern day urban planning. By looking at the plans for these cities, as well as other unfulfilled city plans by the City Beautiful's main spokesmen, Daniel Burnham and Charles Mulford Robinson, we can trace a history of the City Beautiful's rise and fall, and see its real impact on the urban environment today.