Modernism in post-war American Cities – comprehensive downtown planning, and Victor Gruen’s pedestrian mall model

This research critically examines the history of downtown planning and urban design in the post-war through the work and influence of Victor Gruen. Following World War II, many American cities looked to comprehensive master planning to reorganize, modernize, and revitalize their fading downtown districts. During World War II, American downtowns had been in decline. There was expansive economic growth and prosperity in the post-war, however, the trend toward downtown decline was only exaggerated by rapid suburbanization. Design professionals, government officials, and engaged citizens alike sought solutions to the challenges of urban decline. The Austrian born American Architect Victor Gruen is widely credited and renown for his influence in developing modernist, suburban shopping centers. Arguably, however, Gruen’s comprehensive master plan for Fort Worth, Texas “A Greater Fort Worth Tomorrow” was just as influential at shaping cities in the post-war as his suburban shopping center proposals. It was viewed as the solution to downtown decline. The Fort Worth comprehensive plan was widely acclaimed, at its time of completion in 1956, by both professional and popular audiences. Many cities aspired to emulate the plan; many city officials hired architects and urban designers to develop a comprehensive plan for their own cities, some even hired Gruen himself. I argue through evidence in newspaper articles, archival documents, and original design documents that the influence of Gruen’s “A Greater Fort Worth Tomorrow” are comparable to earlier modernist utopian visions such as those produced by CIAM, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others.