Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Ebenezer Howard" - New World
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| − | '''Ebenezer Howard''' (1850 | + | '''Ebenezer Howard''' (born January 29, 1850 – died May 1, 1928) was a prominent [[United Kingdom|British]] urban planner, founder of the English [[Garden city movement]], which greatly influenced urban planning throughout the world. |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | + | ==Life== | |
| − | + | ''Ebenezer Howard'' was born in [[London]], [[England]], in a family of a shopkeeper. He was educated first in Suffolk, then Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, and finally at Stoke Hall, Ipswich. At the age of 15 he started to work in different clerical positions, and at the age of 21, influenced by his uncle farmer, he emigrated to the [[United States]] with the intention of farming. | |
| − | Howard | ||
| − | + | Howard first settled in Howard County, [[Nebraska]], but soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer. He then moved to [[Chicago]] and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers. The city was recovering from the [[Great fire of 1871]], which has destroyed most of the city's center and the business district. Howard witnessed from the first hand the planning and rebuilding of the city. In the U.S. he also became acquainted with, and admired, poets [[Walt Whitman]] and [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]. Howard started however to think about ways to improve the quality of life. | |
| − | + | By 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard, official [[Parliament|Parliamentary]] reporters. He was responsible for recording the details of debates, committees and commissions. He would spend the rest of his life in this occupation. | |
| − | + | Howard visited [[United States|America]] several times between 1876 and 1898, in an attempt to introduce the [[Remington]] typewriter into England. He was very much interesting in inventions, and had a small workshop where he planned and developed his inventions. In 1879 he married Elizabeth Ann Bills, with whom he had three daughters and a son, and eventually nine grandchildren. | |
| − | |||
| − | + | In 1880s Howard became increasingly frustrated with the [[bureaucracy]] of the government and their inability to find solutions to the problems of [[housing]] and [[labor]]. The sanitary conditions in big cities were getting worse, as hundreds of people moved to the cities from countryside every day. | |
| − | + | After reading in 1888 [[Edward Bellamy]]'s utopian novel ''Looking Backward'', Howard became so inspired that he started to design his own plans of the cities of the future. In 1898 he published his ''Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform'', in which he described in details his plan of building a "Garden city". Howard started to lecture around the country and advocated for his plan. By June 1899 Garden City Association was inaugurated and met several times to discuss practical ways of implementing Howard’s plan. The first Garden City Association Conference was held in 1901. | |
Howard was an enthusiastic speaker of [[Esperanto]], often using the language to give speeches. | Howard was an enthusiastic speaker of [[Esperanto]], often using the language to give speeches. | ||
| + | In 1902 Howard revised and republished his book as ''Garden Cities of Tomorrow''. In the same year the Garden City Pioneer Company was founded, with the goal to locate and acquire a land on which the proposed Garden City would be built. In 1903 the land had been purchased in Letchford Manor between Hitchin and Baldock in Hertfordshire. | ||
| − | == | + | In 1904 Howard’s wife died and he remarried in 1907. Howard moved to live in the first Garden City - Letchford, in 1905. He first lived in Norton Way South for some time, and moved to Homesgarth in 1911. He was elected first president of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Federation in 1913, and became an honorary member of the Town Planning Institute in 1914. |
| + | |||
| + | Howard moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1921, the second Garden city he founded. There he remained until his death on May 1st, 1928 after suffering a chest infection and stomach cancer. He was knighted in 1927. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Work== | ||
| + | |||
| + | In his idea of garden cities, Ebenezer Howard was influenced by some earlier attempts by wealthy industrialists to build healthy communities for their employees. The most notable were those by [[W.H. Lever]] (1851-1925) and [[George Cadbury]] (1839-1922), who built towns near their factories. In late 1880s a new movement in architecture was developed by [[John Ruskin]] and [[William Morris]], which emphasized integration of [[city]] and country. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Based on such premises, Howard developed his ideas. He published his book in 1898, entitled ''To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'', which was reprinted in 1902 as ''Garden Cities of To-Morrow''. This book offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both [[town]] - such as opportunity, amusement and high [[wage]]s, and country - such as [[beauty]], fresh air and low [[rent]]s. He illustrated the idea with his famous ''Three Magnets'' diagram, which addressed the question 'Where will the people go?', the choices being 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country' - the Three Magnets. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Howard called for the creation of new [[suburb]]an towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of [[agriculture|agricultural]] land. Howard believed that such Garden cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. The towns would be largely independent, and managed and financed by the citizens who had an economic interest in them. He proposed that Garden cities be located in clusters around the Central cities, interconnected and sharing [[leisure]] facilities and [[service]]s. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Howard’s ideas attracted enough attention and financial backing to begin in early 1900s the Letchworth Garden City, a suburban garden city north of [[London]]. A second garden city, Welwyn Garden City, was started after the [[World War I]]. His contact with German architects [[Hermann Muthesius]] and [[Bruno Taut]] resulted in the application of humane design principles in many large housing projects built in the [[Weimar Republic|Weimar]] years. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Legacy== | ||
| + | |||
| + | The idea of the “Garden city” was influential not only in the [[Great Britain]], but also in different countries around the world. In the [[United States|U.S.]] garden cites have been built in Sunnyside, [[Queens]]; Radburn, [[New Jersey]]; Jackson Heights, Queens; the Woodbourne neighborhood of [[Boston]]; Garden City, on the [[Long Island]] in [[New York City]]; and Baldwin Hills Village (the Village Green) in [[Los Angeles]]. In [[Canada]] there is Walkerville, [[Ontario]]; in Germany a large number of workers housing was built in the [[Weimar Republic|Weimar]] years; and again in [[England]] after [[World War II]] when the New Towns Act triggered the development of many new communities based on Howard's egalitarian vision. There were more than 30 communities built in Britain, the first being Stevenage, Hertfordshire and the last (and largest) being Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The garden city movement also influenced the British urbanist [[Patrick Geddes]] in the planning of Tel-Aviv, [[Israel]]. Howard's ideas also inspired other planners such as [[Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.|Frederick Law Olmsted II]] and [[Clarence Perry]]. [[Walt Disney]] used elements of Howards's concepts in his original design for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). | ||
| + | |||
| + | The organization he founded in 1899 under the name of Garden Cities Association, is now known as the Town and Country Planning Association, and is the oldest environmental charity in [[England]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Publications== | ||
| − | * | + | * Howard, Ebenezer. 1965 (original published in 1902). ''Garden Cities of To-morrow''. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262580020 |
| − | |||
| − | == | + | ==References== |
| − | The ''' | + | * Beevers, Robert. 1988. ''The Garden City Utopia: A Critical Biography of Ebenezer Howard''. Palgrave Macmillan |
| + | * Fishman, Robert. 1982. ''Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier''. The MIT Press | ||
| + | * Hall, Peter G. & Ward, Colin. ''Sociable Cities: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard''. John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 047198504X | ||
| + | * Knack, Ruth E. 1998. Garden cities: Ebenezer had a point. ''Planning, 64''(6), 4-10 | ||
| + | * Moss-Eccardt, John. 1973. ''Ebenezer Howard: An illustrated life of Sir Ebenezer Howard, 1850-1928''. Shire Publications. ISBN 0852632053 | ||
| + | * Parsons, Kermit C. & Schuyler, David. 2002. ''From Garden City to Green City: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard''. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801869447 | ||
| + | * Richert, Evan D. & Lapping, Mark. 2005. Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City. ''Journal of the American Planning Association, 64''(2), 125-128 | ||
| + | * Steeley, Geoff. 2003. Howard's sub-urban horror: One hundred years on from the start of work on Letchworth Garden City. ''Town and Country Planning, 72''(9), 286-287 | ||
| − | + | ==External links== | |
| − | + | * [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041226/Sir-Ebenezer-Howard Ebenezer Howard] – Biography on Encyclopedia Britannica website | |
| + | * [http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/howard.htm Garden Cities of To-Morrow] – Howard’s work | ||
| + | * [http://www.letchworthgardencity.net/heritage/index-3.htm Letchworth - The first Garden City] – On Howard’s life and work | ||
| + | * [http://www.rickmansworthherts.freeserve.co.uk/howard1.htm The Effect of Sir Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City Movement on Twentieth Century Town Planning] – Article by Norman Lucey, 1973 | ||
| + | * [http://www.tcpa.org.uk Town and Country Planning Association] – Official website of the association | ||
{{Credit2|Ebenezer_Howard|97940325|Garden_city_movement|101700707|}} | {{Credit2|Ebenezer_Howard|97940325|Garden_city_movement|101700707|}} | ||
Revision as of 01:59, 31 March 2007
Ebenezer Howard (born January 29, 1850 – died May 1, 1928) was a prominent British urban planner, founder of the English Garden city movement, which greatly influenced urban planning throughout the world.
Life
Ebenezer Howard was born in London, England, in a family of a shopkeeper. He was educated first in Suffolk, then Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, and finally at Stoke Hall, Ipswich. At the age of 15 he started to work in different clerical positions, and at the age of 21, influenced by his uncle farmer, he emigrated to the United States with the intention of farming.
Howard first settled in Howard County, Nebraska, but soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer. He then moved to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers. The city was recovering from the Great fire of 1871, which has destroyed most of the city's center and the business district. Howard witnessed from the first hand the planning and rebuilding of the city. In the U.S. he also became acquainted with, and admired, poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Howard started however to think about ways to improve the quality of life.
By 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard, official Parliamentary reporters. He was responsible for recording the details of debates, committees and commissions. He would spend the rest of his life in this occupation.
Howard visited America several times between 1876 and 1898, in an attempt to introduce the Remington typewriter into England. He was very much interesting in inventions, and had a small workshop where he planned and developed his inventions. In 1879 he married Elizabeth Ann Bills, with whom he had three daughters and a son, and eventually nine grandchildren.
In 1880s Howard became increasingly frustrated with the bureaucracy of the government and their inability to find solutions to the problems of housing and labor. The sanitary conditions in big cities were getting worse, as hundreds of people moved to the cities from countryside every day.
After reading in 1888 Edward Bellamy's utopian novel Looking Backward, Howard became so inspired that he started to design his own plans of the cities of the future. In 1898 he published his Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform, in which he described in details his plan of building a "Garden city". Howard started to lecture around the country and advocated for his plan. By June 1899 Garden City Association was inaugurated and met several times to discuss practical ways of implementing Howard’s plan. The first Garden City Association Conference was held in 1901.
Howard was an enthusiastic speaker of Esperanto, often using the language to give speeches.
In 1902 Howard revised and republished his book as Garden Cities of Tomorrow. In the same year the Garden City Pioneer Company was founded, with the goal to locate and acquire a land on which the proposed Garden City would be built. In 1903 the land had been purchased in Letchford Manor between Hitchin and Baldock in Hertfordshire.
In 1904 Howard’s wife died and he remarried in 1907. Howard moved to live in the first Garden City - Letchford, in 1905. He first lived in Norton Way South for some time, and moved to Homesgarth in 1911. He was elected first president of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Federation in 1913, and became an honorary member of the Town Planning Institute in 1914.
Howard moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1921, the second Garden city he founded. There he remained until his death on May 1st, 1928 after suffering a chest infection and stomach cancer. He was knighted in 1927.
Work
In his idea of garden cities, Ebenezer Howard was influenced by some earlier attempts by wealthy industrialists to build healthy communities for their employees. The most notable were those by W.H. Lever (1851-1925) and George Cadbury (1839-1922), who built towns near their factories. In late 1880s a new movement in architecture was developed by John Ruskin and William Morris, which emphasized integration of city and country.
Based on such premises, Howard developed his ideas. He published his book in 1898, entitled To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, which was reprinted in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-Morrow. This book offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town - such as opportunity, amusement and high wages, and country - such as beauty, fresh air and low rents. He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram, which addressed the question 'Where will the people go?', the choices being 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country' - the Three Magnets.
Howard called for the creation of new suburban towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land. Howard believed that such Garden cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. The towns would be largely independent, and managed and financed by the citizens who had an economic interest in them. He proposed that Garden cities be located in clusters around the Central cities, interconnected and sharing leisure facilities and services.
Howard’s ideas attracted enough attention and financial backing to begin in early 1900s the Letchworth Garden City, a suburban garden city north of London. A second garden city, Welwyn Garden City, was started after the World War I. His contact with German architects Hermann Muthesius and Bruno Taut resulted in the application of humane design principles in many large housing projects built in the Weimar years.
Legacy
The idea of the “Garden city” was influential not only in the Great Britain, but also in different countries around the world. In the U.S. garden cites have been built in Sunnyside, Queens; Radburn, New Jersey; Jackson Heights, Queens; the Woodbourne neighborhood of Boston; Garden City, on the Long Island in New York City; and Baldwin Hills Village (the Village Green) in Los Angeles. In Canada there is Walkerville, Ontario; in Germany a large number of workers housing was built in the Weimar years; and again in England after World War II when the New Towns Act triggered the development of many new communities based on Howard's egalitarian vision. There were more than 30 communities built in Britain, the first being Stevenage, Hertfordshire and the last (and largest) being Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire.
The garden city movement also influenced the British urbanist Patrick Geddes in the planning of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Howard's ideas also inspired other planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted II and Clarence Perry. Walt Disney used elements of Howards's concepts in his original design for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow).
The organization he founded in 1899 under the name of Garden Cities Association, is now known as the Town and Country Planning Association, and is the oldest environmental charity in England.
Publications
- Howard, Ebenezer. 1965 (original published in 1902). Garden Cities of To-morrow. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262580020
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Beevers, Robert. 1988. The Garden City Utopia: A Critical Biography of Ebenezer Howard. Palgrave Macmillan
- Fishman, Robert. 1982. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier. The MIT Press
- Hall, Peter G. & Ward, Colin. Sociable Cities: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard. John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 047198504X
- Knack, Ruth E. 1998. Garden cities: Ebenezer had a point. Planning, 64(6), 4-10
- Moss-Eccardt, John. 1973. Ebenezer Howard: An illustrated life of Sir Ebenezer Howard, 1850-1928. Shire Publications. ISBN 0852632053
- Parsons, Kermit C. & Schuyler, David. 2002. From Garden City to Green City: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801869447
- Richert, Evan D. & Lapping, Mark. 2005. Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City. Journal of the American Planning Association, 64(2), 125-128
- Steeley, Geoff. 2003. Howard's sub-urban horror: One hundred years on from the start of work on Letchworth Garden City. Town and Country Planning, 72(9), 286-287
External links
- Ebenezer Howard – Biography on Encyclopedia Britannica website
- Garden Cities of To-Morrow – Howard’s work
- Letchworth - The first Garden City – On Howard’s life and work
- The Effect of Sir Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City Movement on Twentieth Century Town Planning – Article by Norman Lucey, 1973
- Town and Country Planning Association – Official website of the association
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