Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Apotheosis Of The Public Realm: Civic Classicism In New York City's Architecture, Paul Andrija Ranogajec

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the years around the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, a renewed interest in republican political theory among progressive liberals coincided with a new kind of civic architecture. For the first time in American history, cities and the urban public emerged as crucial parts of democratic citizenship, at least for progressives such as Frank Goodnow, Frederic Howe, and Herbert Croly. At the same time, New York City was promoted as the nation's cultural and commercial capital: the "American metropolis," in Croly's words. Architects, too, played a key role in articulating the city's and the urban public's new status …