How you may live and travel in the city of 1950

[progressoid]

Architect Harvey Corbett's vision as seen in a 1925 Popular Science publication.







http://www.sadanduseless.com/image.php?n=657

[treestar]

1. fascinating

I kind of like it!

Why don't we put schools/homes/offices in the same building in the big cities?

[progressoid]

5. Oh I dunno...

Sometimes I like a a little space between me and a school full of raging teenage hormones.

[treestar]

14. The school is on another floor

And in that modernistic a place, there'd be soundproofing.

Love the three level transportation set up!

[progressoid]

19. I was thinking maybe a coctail lounge as a buffer!

[knitter4democracy]

2. To put the roads under the city, we'd need electric cars.

The exhaust would be a huge problem. Other than that, I think it looks great.

[progressoid]

6. Yeah, I noticed that too.

And the spiral escalators might be a problem for people who get dizzy easily.

[Little Star]

3. Mr. Corbett had a good imagination. n/t

[Aerows]

4. That sort of looks like Coruscant in Star Wars LOL

Cool, in any case.

[PatSeg]

7. That is so cool

Spiral escalators? Great imagination.

[PatSeg]

8. His vision of future highways

was quite prophetic.

[Occulus]

9. Well, he certainly nailed the cloverleaf traffic exchange, at least n/t

[FredStembottom]

16. Just being elevated would make it a ghost park

People just wouldn't go up there. And I don't necessarily mean because we're too fat and lazy (though we are). But he fails to understand that the appeal of a park in a city is that it interrupts the city. It's a terrain surprise that delights because of being a sudden change right within the work-a-day landscape. An elevated, seperated park would go unnoticed.

Turns out it's the little things that make for failures in urban design.

[PatSeg]

18. That's a good point

Apparently he thought more in terms of what could be done, rather than what people would want or use.

[Stevenmarc]

32. Not really that good a point

see post below about the Highline

[PatSeg]

35. I hadn't heard of that

Mr. Corbett truly was ahead of his time in more ways than one.

[Stevenmarc]

26. Obviously you haven't heard of the popularity of The Highline in NYC

http://www.thehighline.org/

[FredStembottom]

38. Happy to be wrong about this.

But I have watched other parks in isolated places go dead. Places that had no natural pedestrian traffic.

[reggie the dog]

43. is that on old elevated train line turned into a park

like they have on the south side of paris?

[Stevenmarc]

45. Yes it is

[reggie the dog]

42. in paris there is an elevated park on the south side

on the path of an old unused elevated train line that is quite popular.

[Odin2005]

23. Wow, he got the cloverleaf intersections perfectly!

[RC]

10. Sure, put the people out in the rain, snow and wind...

[progressoid]

12. By the 1950's we will have complete controll of the weather too.

Problem solved.

[sufrommich]

11. I would live there, looks pretty cool. nt

[treestar]

15. I like how you could take the kids to school by elevator and then use

the same to get to work.

[Shagbark Hickory]

13. Those types of magazines aren't too good at predicting the future IMO.

They dont take into account limited resources and money

[starroute]

17. The artist who drew this was the great Frank R. Paul

You can see his distinctive signature in the lower right-hand corner. Paul became the leading illustrator for Amazing Stories when it was founded in 1926 and set his stamp on the science fiction art of the next decade. His more Art Deco-styled futuristic cities from the 1930's have been particularly influential. (Think Futurama, for example.)

[TuxedoKat]

20. Walt Disney must have seen this

It reminds me of his prototype city for Epcot. Too bad it was never built, I would have liked to live there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxC_a7qnGi8&feature=related

Towards the end of part two and part three show more detailed plans for the city.

[Diclotican]

31. TuxedoKat

TuxedoKat

Wow, this was great.. Bad it never happened in real life... But it could have been some showcase for modern City's if this ever had been build.. It would have been some of a aye opener for everyone... Whole Contry's would have build new City's or rebuild old one by this design...

But, would it have been the paradise it was shown as?..

Diclotican

[TuxedoKat]

46. Thanks

for bringing that up. I hadn't thought of that question but it is very interesting to think about. I would think people would be clamoring to live in an environment like that which would drive the prices up then only fairly wealthy people could afford to live in a city like that. I will have to ponder that some more...

[begin_within]

21. Here's more...

(and I dig that spiral escalator idea, that would have been cool)

http://www.paleofuture.com/

[sufrommich]

24. Wow, great site! "you'll shop by picture phone in the future".nt

[PatSeg]

25. Oh this will keep me occupied all afternoon

In 1873 Professor Plantamour predicted that by 2011 earth would be completely frozen.

"We have heard from our ally, Prof. Plantamour, again. Last year he prophesied we were to be burned up. Now he declares in a paper just issued in Paris, that everybody will be frozen to death in the year 2011. We are glad to have the date accurately fixed, for we shall arrange for our life insurance policy to expire in the year 2011. The first news of the freeze will appear in the Saturday Evening Post for Jan. 1st, 2011, an we shall offer as a premium to clubs that year, an all-wool overcoat four feet thick, with an air tight stove in each breast pocket, and a gas heater in the tail, and an open grate arrangement at the collar. The getter up of two clubs will have a pair of skates, and a double breasted pink undershirt thrown in. Persons who wish to compete for these prizes, can send their subscriptions now, from this year to 2011, in order to make the thing certain. No paper shall beat us, if we have to get up a corner in a double-breasted undershirts and create a panic in the market." --Max Adeler

http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/category/1870s


That's one witty journalist.

[progressoid]

29. Paleofuture.

What a great word!

And cool site too!

[Odin2005]

22. We should have the futurists run things, not the Capitalists.

That is cool.

[ThomWV]

27. Yep, and we were all going to travel by private helicopter; leisure time would be nearly unlimited

[Skidmore]

28. It seems to me that much of his vision has come to pass.

Perhaps not exactly as depicted in these drawings, but the bulk if it is present in modern day society.

[Diclotican]

30. progressoid

progressoid

Cool, it looked like one of my Sim City's where I build one heck of a City, with a lot of buildings, parks, and where most of the traffic was going under ground... Even tho Sim City have its limits.. Specially the ability to build underground in different levels it was and are still a great game..

Hopefully the game wil work on my new comp too. as the old is starting to be little slow;(

Diclotican

[eridani]

33. The futurology of the past is always good for a few laughs.

In the 50s, futurologists looked at big commercial aircraft and big mainframe computers, and concluded that of course people of the future would prefer small personal planes to small personal computers.

[KittyWampus]

40. well, the really wealthy DO prefer small personal planes & computers (iPads)

:D

[Old Troop]

34. I wish I could go back to 1950 to see how it all worked out.

[AndiMer]

37. Me too

I really don't see the point of the thread.

[jtuck004]

36. Rats in a cage. eom

[yodermon]

39. hmm... Metropolis?

[KittyWampus]

41. This ended up being a great thread. Lot's of fun. Food for thought

[Iggo]

44. 1950 is gonna kick ass! I can't wait. (n/t)

[Art_from_Ark]

47. I'm going to go out on a limb here and make some predictions

We're going to get involved in another war in Asia. And then another one 10 years after that (hey, don't laugh!).

They'll still have these big old hulking cars that get 9 miles per gallon but gas will still be cheap so no one will care.

There will be a Commie behind every bush and under every bed.

And speaking of Commies, in this decade the Commies will beat us into space (but don't haul me in front of Senator McCarthy's committee for saying that!)

and finally
The Yankees will beat the Phillies in the 1950 World Series.

[kentauros]

48. This reminds me of several movies:

Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
Metropolis (Rintaro / Osamu Tezuka)
Akira
Blade Runner

There are probably others, but those spring to mind first and foremost, especially for their quite similar cityscapes :D

[Codeine]

49. Future cars will tip over if the driver turns at more than 10MPH.

Seriously, tricycle cars are hysterically easy to tip. Here's the Reliant Robin on Top Gear;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8