Broadacre City

Frank Lloyd Wright

and his vision for the urban future

Quadruple Block Plan

Chicago City Club Housing Competition

by Franz Sdoutz

'Quadruple Block Plan' from 'A Home in a Prairie Town' 1900-1901 XII.) 20 by Frank Lloyd Wright …

» A CITY man going to the country puts too much in his house and too little in his ground. He drags after him the fifty-foot lot, soon the twenty-five-foot lot, finally the party wall ; and the homemaker who fully appreciates the advantages which he came to the country to secure feels himself impelled to move on.
It seems a waste of energy to plan a house haphazard, to hit or miss an already distorted condition, so this partial solution of a city man's country home on the prairie begins at the beginning and assumes four houses to the block of four hundred feet square as the minimum of ground for the basis of his prairie community. […] « XII.) 20

Prairie House - 1900, by Frank Lloyd Wright

Label: » TAFEL XIII PRAIRIE-HAUS FÜR DIE PRAIRIE-GEMEINSCHAFT. «
published in "The Ladies' Home Journal" […] February 1901 labelled: "A Home in a Prairie Town" [projected costs: $7000] I.) 1 XII.) 20
and similar in Alfred B. Yeomans' account of the Chicago City Club Housing Competition, 1916 [page 101] II.) Img. _02_a

Quadruple Block Plan - 1903 (Projects for Charles E. Roberts 1896 - 1903 XII.) 21) by Frank Lloyd Wright …

… with individual lots reduced to approximately » a sixth of an acre. « XII.) 21 Img. _10
Wright illustrated the virtues of his scheme in juxtaposition to a » most conventional but least desirable « XV.) 27 Chicago standard layout. FLW 0309.006 [ Also compare to A. R. Sennett 1905 ]

Images
Robert C. Twombly [page 224] I.) 11
www.flickr.com
http://www.mongelli2000.com
http://cybergeo.revues.org/ […]

Residential area development project in the context of the Chicago City Club Housing Competition for subdividing a typical (Model) Quarter-Section of Land [32 blocks = 160 acres = 64,75 ha] in the outskirts of Chicago. It was produced for the City Club on request from the club's civic secretary George E. Hooker IV.) 3 III.) 4 [as expressly not part of the competition XII.) 23 ], and is therefore labelled "non-competitive II.)". 1912-13 III.) 4 X.) 17


Robert C. Twombly identifies spatial segregation in Wright's Chicago City Club project: » […] In general, homes for the comfortable and affluent dominated the choice sites near parks and social and cultural services, while within a kind of grudging necessity the workers were farmed out to periphery by themselves. […] « [page 225] I.) 8

KEY TO PLAN (sustaining that assessment in part) I.) 8
» […]
S. Two and three room apartments for men.
T. Two and three room apartments for women.
V. Seven and eight room houses, better class.
[…] «

Explanation for Img. _05 Scheme C.

» […] Each of the four houses moved to exterior angles of the four lots of the sub-block — grouping uniformly in fours equally distant from each other both ways, garages at center. Each group connected by low walls about eight feet [2,44 m] back from public walks. Major area of each lot suited for private use as a garden.
Schemes [A, B, C] might be rhythmically interchanged in some wellbalanced arrangements. « II.) 6 see lot dimensions

Both interpretations [see also Neil Levine: III.) 4 and Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer: XV.) 28] offer two possible advisements:

a) Empathicly we assume:
Aware of the design's "inadequacies" see lot dimensions in terms of lacking a clear vision [apart applied pragmatism with a branding design twist X.) 19], Wright, [being the perfectionist perceived and therefore] eager to eradicate that flaw, refined his initially vague ideas until he shaped an urban vision that ultimately would become [worthy of] HIS.

A view projected with hindsight. Profoundly visionary urban conceptions weren't an issue [yet]. The city club project was a deliberate statement directed at [even tailored for see: KEY TO PLAN] a sophisticated audience engaged in a very particular socio-urban conduct. VII.) VIII.) Wright intended to impress The City Club [on their terms], and he certainly did.

and b) target-group-specific tunnel vision: When reasoning the matter, we [including myself] simply overexpose this urban scheme as a [chronological] prototype for Broadacre City.

Chicago block diagram, Sdoutz 2008

In view of that "picturesque variety" II.) 5 Wright intended, houses and lots [following the Chicago City Club project] turn out to be VERY X.) 19 SMALL, at least compared to today's aspirations.

It seems that Wright used already existing Quadruple Block types Img. _10 from the Roberts project Img. _03 to illustrate the Chicago City Club scheme Img. _05 - regardless of actual lot dimensions implied by its site plan Img. _04. Thus suggesting a rather spacious arrangement, in an after all "crowded" urban layout. X.) 19

The Quadruple Block Plan [based on the reproduction used in Img. _02] also suggests that quadruple block lots were NOT quite square, depending on their "side-alley" XII.) 22 widths.

Quadruple Lots in this diagram Img. _06 are scaled to a block width of 270 feet [82,3 m], which is not "what became, during the real estate boom from 1866 to 1873, the standard (or usual) Chicago block of 266 by 600 feet." IV.) 9 as specified by Homer Hoyt in 1933 V.) 16, but complies with Yeomans' account of the Chicago City Club Competition program from 1913. II.) Img. _07

'Standard City Block; as used for computations' Img. _07
block size (270 x 600 feet) [82,3 x 182,9 m]
street width (60 feet) [18,3 m]
no back alley
accommodating 48 lots (25 x 135 feet) [7,6 x 41,1 m]

Compare block and lot dimensions [to the left of Img. _06] to:
Innovative Urban Wet-weather Flow Management Systems by Richard Field, James P. Heaney and Robert Pitt, CRC Press, 2000 [page 38]
http://books.google.at/ PDF …

"Figure 2-9. Typical unit residential area, Chicago, IL (APWA, 1968)."
block size (264x594 feet) [80,5 x 181 m]
street width (66 feet) [20,1 m]
back alley (16 feet) [4,9 m]
divided into 36 lots (33 x 124 feet) [10,1 x 37,8 m]

Also compare to: Geoposition [randomly chosen] :
+41° 56' 34.65", -87° 46' 52.53"

According to various [net] sources the average [hence prevailing] Chicago lot size currently [still] equals 25 x 125 feet [7,6 x 38,1 m].
Use Google Earth's measuring tool and see for your self …

The Living City - 1958, by Frank Lloyd Wright

» […] Also there is the plan of the quadruple in quadrangular array widespread and beneficent instead of the standardized subdivision based upon the ancient London dormitory town. « XI.) 18 […]

References

1. "Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture" by Robert C. Twombly, published by Wiley-IEEE, 1987
   http://books.google.at/
   
   1 a » A Home in a Prairie Town « Page 53 shows a reproduction […] of the February 1901 article in "The Ladies' Home Journal" [http://www.steinerag.com/ 2].
   » A Small House with 'Lots of Room in It' « [… 2 3] was also published in The Ladies' Home Journal July 1901. [http://www.steinerag.com/ 2 3]
   » After explaining the plans and specifying the costs - $7000 for the 'Prairie' and $5800 for the 'Small' House - Wright declared himself ready to accept orders. « [page 52] See also: XII.) 20
   Details according to Twombly [page 56, note 14]
   
   11 [page 224]
   8 Key to plan [page 225, 226, 227] See also II.) Img. _04
   
   Here [page 226] Wright's project is labelled » "Non-Competitive Plan" (1913) for the National Conference on City Planning « VII.) VIII.)
2. ^ a b c '[Publications of The City Club of Chicago] City Residential Land Development: Studies in Planning: Competitive Plans for Subdividing a Typical Quarter Section of Land in the Outskirts of Chicago', edited by Alfred B. [Beaver] Yeomans [Landscape Architect], published by The University of Chicago Press, December 1916
   PDF from http://www.archive.org/
   
   » Program of a Competition with Cash Prizes for the procuring of a Scheme of Development for a Quarter-Section of Land within the Limits of the City of Chicago, Illinois
   […]
   For good reasons it has been detemined that the area for the laying out of which plans are to be submitted in this competition shall be, not a precisely located, but an imaginary or an assumed site, as follows: « [page 1, 2]
   
   Wilhelm Bernhard was awarded first prize, Arthur C. Comey second, Albert and Mrs. Ingrid Lilienberg third. 43 plans were submitted, 39 reported by the jury, 33 [including Wright's] published.
   
   
   Illustrations of "NON-COMPETITIVE PLAN" or "PLAN BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT" for "CITY RESIDENTIAL LAND DEVELOPMENT" [Chicago City Club Competition 1913]
   Img. _08 Bird's-Eye View of the Quarter-Section [page 97]
   Img. _04 [Site] Plan including "KEY TO PLAN" and "STATISTICAL DATA" [page 98]
   Img. _05 Quadruple Block Scheme C [page 100]
   Img. _02_a not labelled, depicting a 'Prairie House' [probably 0007.001 XV.) Img. _02 page 101]
   Img. _07 Standard City Block as used for computations [page 138]
   
   5 a » […] A succession of buildings of any given length by this arrangement presents the aspect of well-grouped buildings in a park, of greater picturesque variety than is possible where façade follows façade. « [Frank Lloyd Wright] (page 99)
   See also IV.) 9
   
   6 » EXPLANATION OF ALTERNATIVE BLOCK ARRANGEMENTS
   A. Quadruple re-subdivision of city block by means of single cross street and parterres into four sub-blocks. Four houses grouped at center of each sub-block about an interior court enclosed by low walls — 1/4 of the enclosure available to each of the four houses. One entrance to one house only on each side of each sub-block. No alleys — houses revolving in plan so that living-rooms and verandas face outward and kitchens inward to courts. A single plan used thus is always presented at a different angle in harmonious groups of four.
   B. Same. Single cross street — no parterres. Houses grouping across the streets increasing interior court gardens and giving direct access from street to all houses without parterres. […] « [page 101]
3. 'Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930' by Frank Lloyd Wright [published first 1931] with a new introduction by Neil Levine, published by Princeton University Press, 2008 http://books.google.at/
   
   4 a » […] The 1912-13 project for a thirty-two-block residential area of Chicago done in the context of the Chicago City Club Competition for a Model Quarter-Section was designed in response to a request from the club's civic secretary, George Hooker, and is in no way an ideal, comprehensive city plan. « XII.) 23
   [Neil Levine, note 178, page lxix]
4. ^ "Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design" by Rodolphe El-Khoury, Edward Robbins, published by Routledge, 2004
   
   3 » [… because] Wright did not participate in competitions. « Note 12, page 75 accredits that information to Neil Levine. XII.) 23
   http://books.google.at/
   
   14 [page 60] reproduction of Hoyt's diagram V.) 13 » Various methods of subdividing a 40 Acre Tract, 1320 Feet Square « [page 431, figure 103, type E]
   
   9 a [page 61]
   http://books.google.at/
   
   
5. "One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise of Its Land Values, 1830-1933" by Homer Hoyt, Harry A. Millis, published by Beard Books, 2000 [published first in 1933]
   
   16 [page 429]
   
   13 » Various methods of subdividing a 40 Acre Tract, 1320 Feet Square « [page 431, figure 103, type E] http://books.google.at/
   Details according to El-Khoury and Robbins IV.) 14
6. ^ 'FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: DIE LEBENDIGE STADT' edited by David G. De Long, published by Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein / Skira editore, Milan, 1998
   http://books.google.at/ (German)
   
   Img. _02 Caption: » "Eln Haus in einer Präriestadt" für das Ladies' Home Journal, 1900 (Projekt) « [House in a Prairie City] by Frank Lloyd Wright [page 182]
   Img. _03 Caption: » Viererblockplan, 1900-1903 (Projekt) « [Quadruple Block Plan] by Frank Lloyd Wright [page 248]
7. a b 'The Birth of City Planning in the United States, 1840-1917' by Jon A. Peterson, JHU Press, 2003
   
   » […] in 1912-1913 both the NCCP [National Conference on City Planning VIII.)] and the Chicago City Club had sponsored model-suburb design contests. The planners did so as a conference study-project, the City Club II.) as an open competition with prizes. «
   http://books.google.at/ [page 282]
8. a b c The First National Conference on City Planning was held in Washington, D.C. in May 1909
   PDF from http://www.archive.org/
   
   The fifth conference took place in Chicago in May 1913
   PDF from http://www.archive.org/
   
   » While the goal of our so-called city planning movement is the actual improvement of cities, the translation of plans into facts, […] one of the big steps toward that goal is the substitution of plans for mere talk about plans or about the subjects with which plans deal. […] « [page 168]
   
   … making very general comments on 9 presented 'city planning studies' (page 93 onwards, list of participants page 210) and only one [!] reference to the City Club competition:
   » We have also carried out, as some of you saw yesterday at the City Club, a study of a particular quarter section of a level city from a theoretical standpoint. « [page 189]
   
   7 The Seventh National Conference on City Planning [Detroit June 1915] provides a brief history of Chicago block sizes.
   http://www.archive.org/ [page 244 onwards]
9. 'The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright' by Neil Levine, published by Princeton University Press, 1996 http://www.books-by-isbn.com/
   
   Img. _01 'Quadruple Block Plan' by Frank Lloyd Wright
   published in 'The Ladies' Home Journal' [http://www.steinerag.com/] February 1901
   Caption: » "Quadruple Block Plan" project, 1900. Perspective and plan. « [page 31]
   
   Note 20, page 440 » The plans were commissioned by Edward Bok, president of the Curtis Publishing Company. The "Quadruple Block Plan" appeared in the February 1901 Ladies' Home Journal. Wright reworked it as the basis for a twenty-four-unit development for Charles E. Roberts, for Oak Park, in 1900-1903. «
10. 17 The competition program was issued in 1912; competition deadline was March 3, 1913; an exhibition at the club building was due to open March 7, 1913 II.) also displaying Wright's project. XII.) 23
    
    
    19 a Img. _06
    Block sizes of 270 x 600 feet - based on graphic approximation to the site plan Img. _04 and competition guidelines - are [strictly speaking] speculative as are relating / resulting lot dimensions of approx. 64 x 60 feet [approx. 360 square meters]. Nevertheless: the site plan does indicate lots nearly half the size of the Roberts scheme. Img. _10 Thus houses with gross floor areas of let's say ~170 m2 at ground level would leave 6 m of open space between them, houses with ~121 m2 would have 8 m distance … a hypothetic 1:1 ratio of solids and intervals limits constructed areas to ~90 m2.
    With "Two-flat Buildings" [evidently larger, labelled "W" bottom left in Img. _04] consuming almost their entire lot, again "façade would follow façade" II.) 5 …
11. 'The Living City' by Frank Lloyd Wright, published by Horizon Press, 1958
    
    Img. _09 [page 150]
    18 Apartments … [page 171]
12. IN: 'Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward' published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward' at the Guggenheim Museum NY 2009, by Skira Rizzoli Publications Inc. 2009
    http://www.books-by-isbn.com/
    
    'Making Community Out of the Grid: WRIGHT'S QUADRUPLE BLOCK PLAN AND THE ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIE HOUSE' by Neil Levine [page 58 to 73]
    
    20 a b » The Quadruple Block Plan and the Ladies' Home Journal, "A Home in a Prairie Town," 1900-01 «
    Page 65 shows also I.) 1 a reproduction […] of the February 1901 article published in ' The Ladies' Home Journal' [for an even larger reprint see XV.) ] http://www.steinerag.com/ 2
    
    » A Home in a Prairie Town
    By FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
    This is the Fifth Design in the Journal's New Series of Model Suburban Houses Which Can be Built at Moderate Cost «
    
    » […] Cement on metal lath is suggested for the exterior covering throughout, because it is simple, and, as now understood, durable and cheap. The cost of this house with interior as specified and cement construction would be seven thousand dollars: […] Total … $6970 « [text by Frank Lloyd Wright]
    
    [ensued by an] » EDITOR'S NOTE - As a guarantee that the plan of this house is practicable, and that the estimates for cost are conservative, the architect is ready to accept the commission of preparing the working plans and specifications for this house to cost Seven Thousand Dollars […] «
    
    21 a All figures according to Neil Levine pages 66, 67, 68, who also gives a detailed account of the actual geometries developed for the Roberts project(s). Img. _03
    » First Roberts Master Plan, 1896 « XV.)
    possibly: » New Idea for Suburbs … 1901 «
    and » Adaptation of the Quadruple Block Plan to the Roberts Block, 1903 «
    
    22 [page 68] Wright replaced standard "multipurpose alleys" with pedestrian ways called 'esplanades' and vehicular passages called 'courts'. He also had a version for the Roberts project Img. _03 drawn » with the lots squared up as much as possible « [page 70], thus » increasing the length of the block (to the inside of the sidewalks) from 465 to 558 feet. « [page 73, note 21]
    
    23 a b c Page 73; Note 26 resolves the procedures regarding the Chicago City Club Housing Competition.
    
    26 caption for FLLW FDN # 0309.003 [page 71] Img. _10
13. 'You Dear Old Prima Donna: The Letters
    of Frank Lloyd Wright and Jens Jensen' by Virginia L. Russell, FASLA, published in Landscape Journal 2001; 20:2; PDF [pages 141-155]
    
    24 » […] In 1913, the Chicago City Club, when Jensen was their Chair of City Planning, held a competition for the design of a suburban community, and Wright did not enter his design, which evolved into the Broadacre City, in the competition, instead choosing to submit the scheme "hors concours," as one reviewer put it, or "outside the competition." Jensen was on the jury for the competition, and it would be a dispute over Broadacre City that ultimately ended their friendship thirty years later. […] « [page 154, note 8]
    
    
14. IN: 'Center: A Journal of Architecture in America', 'Modernist Visions and the Contemporary American City' - Volume 5, published in 1989 by the Center of the Study of American Architecture, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin. http://soa.utexas.edu/
    
    'Broadacre City: The Reception of a Modernist Vision, 1932-1988' by Anthony Alofsin [pages 8 - 43]
    
    25 [pages 11, 12]
15. 'Frank Lloyd Wright 1885-1916: The Complete Works' [Volume 1] by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, edited by Peter Gössel, published by Taschen 2011
    http://www.taschen.com/
    
    'Housing Project for Charles E. Roberts' 1896 Ridgeland Oak Park Illinois [project page 81]
    
    'Block Plan for Charles E. Roberts' 1897 Oak Park, Illinois [project, page 85]
    
    'A Home in a Prairie Town', 1901, Ladies' Home Journal [project, page 118]
    Img. _02 0007.001 coloured version, II.) Img. _02_a very similar, actually not dated but in the context of 'A Home in a Prairie Town' publication of 1901 [page 119]
    Img. _01 0007.009 » A Home in a Prairie Town by Frank Lloyd Wright « magazine page reproduction [page 120] as published in 'The Ladies' Home Journal' [http://www.steinerag.com/] February 1901, page 17
    
    "Quadruple Block Plan" 1901 Ladies' Home Journal [project, page 128]
    
    'Charles E. Roberts Block Plan' 1903, Oak Park, Illinois [0309, project, page 204-206]
    Img. _10 0309.003 'new block plan' with clearly readable measurements [not labelled, deatail, page 205] See also FLW 0309.006
    27 » One scheme shows the houses extremely close to each other on very narrow lots running the length of the property. There are 15 houses each on the lower and upper halves (0309.006), with those on the lower side by Wright and those on the upper side drawn in the Victorian style. It is possible this plan, which is not very appealing, was made to show the client the most conventional but least desirable solution. « [page 206]
    
    Model Quarter Section, City Residential Land Development, 1913, Chicago, Illinois [project, page 460]
    28 » […] Wright’s text is long and detailed in explanation for all aspects of the plan, and a careful study of what he wrote at the time reveals his concern for urban planning, a concern that would be further developed when he set to work, in 1934, on the plan and model of Broadacre City, which several elements in this scheme anticipate. For the residential block plan he has taken elements from the Roberts block plan of 1903 (project 0309) and incorporated them into this project as plan A, plan B, and plan C. « [see Img. _05]
16. 'Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright [Studies and Executed Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright]' Reprint of the portfolio edition of 100 lithographs published in 1910 by Verlag Ernst Wasmuth A.G., Berlin, second edition, 1998 http://www.steinerag.com/
    For a digital 1910 edition Volume I, Volume II see the University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library
    
    Img. _03 [page 20] Label: » TAFEL XIII a RECHTECKIGE HÄUSERBLÖCKE FÜR DIE PRAIRIE-GEMEINSCHAFT.
    GEDRUCKT UND VERLEGT VON ERNST WASMUTH A.-G., BERLIN «
    http://content.lib.utah.edu/
    Img. _02 [page 19] Label: » TAFEL XIII PRAIRIE-HAUS FÜR DIE PRAIRIE-GEMEINSCHAFT.
    GEDRUCKT UND VERLEGT VON ERNST WASMUTH A.-G., BERLIN «
    http://content.lib.utah.edu/

Links

• http://books.google.at/
  http://www.archive.org/ 2 3
  http://books.google.at/
  http://books.google.at/
  http://books.google.at/
  http://books.google.at/
  http://cybergeo.revues.org/
  http://www.metroplanning.org/ [404]
  http://www.daimi.au.dk/ [metric - imperial converter]

more Broadacre

• 'Broadacre City' model
  Illustrations 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007 for 'The Living City'
• Related housing schemes:
  Quadruple Block Plan; Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing; American System-Built Houses; Willey House; Usonia; Galesburg Country Homes; Parkwyn Village; Usonia II;
• Featured architecture:
  Huntington Hartford Play Resort; Gordon Strong Automobile Objective; Rogers Lacy Hotel

File Log

• Preliminary version ...
• Outlining Broadacre City became necessary in the course of my urban diploma project 16/3 in 1999. Published online the same year in German, this 'preliminary' English translation became available in 2007.
• All links to http://contentdm.unl.edu/ [University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries] have been updated (25.11.2008).
• Links to http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ [Columbia University in the City of New York] added (2.8.2009)
• All dates according to source [!]. Wikipedia and 'The Complete Works' by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer accomplish a certain 'conventionalisation', superseding conflicting 'chronologies' supported by [prior] publications of the time.