I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE: Selling the Unsustainable City

Seventy years ago, General Motors’ Highways and Horizons exhibit at the World’s Fair, designed by Norman Bel Geddes and Eero Saarinen, promoted demand for cars and federal highways without any concern for environmental sustainability, the theme of our 2010 conference. The main exhibit included a seq...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of urban history 2012-01, Vol.38 (1), p.3-15
Main Author: Hayden, Dolores
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Americans
Arts festivals
Automobiles
Bel Geddes, Norman
Cities
Cities - economics
Cities - ethnology
Cities - history
Cities - legislation & jurisprudence
Conferences
Embodiment
Environment
Environmental Movements
Equity
Exhibits
Exhibits as Topic
Forecasting
Highways
Historical account
History of medicine
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Humans
Low, Setha M
Motorways
Perception
Population Groups - education
Population Groups - ethnology
Population Groups - history
Population Groups - legislation & jurisprudence
Population Groups - psychology
Public Health - economics
Public Health - education
Public Health - history
Roads & highways
Saarinen, Eero
spatial distribution
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Trade shows
Transport
Transportation
Transportation - economics
Transportation - history
United States - ethnology
Urban Areas
Urban design
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Description
Summary:Seventy years ago, General Motors’ Highways and Horizons exhibit at the World’s Fair, designed by Norman Bel Geddes and Eero Saarinen, promoted demand for cars and federal highways without any concern for environmental sustainability, the theme of our 2010 conference. The main exhibit included a sequence of four parts (entrance ramps, map lobby, Futurama ride, and “intersection of 1960”) where the viewer’s perception of spatial scale was manipulated. Setha M. Low’s theory of “embodied space” helps decode why movement through these diverse spaces influenced millions of Americans’ views of transportation and urban form, a promotional success yet to be equaled by advocates of environmental sustainability.
ISSN:0096-1442
1552-6771
DOI:10.1177/0096144211420635