Almost+Perfect+Town

"The Almost Perfect Town"
 * From Landscape **
 * 1952**

[|Jackson, John Brinckerhoff (1909-1996)] Born in France and educated in the United States, Brinckerhoff was a writer, editor/publisher (of Landscape ), teacher (adjunct at Harvard and Berkeley), and artist involved with landscape design. He was instrumental in extending Frederick Law Olmsted's work and the American Park's Movement to include virtually all aspects of the built environment from parks to roads, buildings, warehouses, and slums.

In this article, Brinckerhoff uses a mythical archetype, Optimo City, a "small place surrounded by rural land" as a way to critique the post-WWII urban planning that he seems to think threatened to destroy local communities for progress' sake. Instead, he asserts that it has traditionally been important to preserve a city's history in its architecture, layout, and design, and the rural urban connections are important to maintain. Thus, he champions the Main Street environment of small town America.
 * Main Argument**

This is clearly a reaction to the sort of sprawl the ideas of Le Corbusier and others led to in the 1920s and 30s, that modernist view of cities. It arrives in time for the suburbanization of America.
 * Other Ideas in the Article**