ABSTRACT
The emergence of urban planning as a distinctive approach to urban development at the interstices of architecture, construction, surveying, engineering, sociology and landscape architecture accelerated rapidly in the years immediately preceding World War One. This chapter utilizes the trope of 'windows' to look more closely at early exhibitions across three interrelated levels: at an institutional or macro level—as an indicator of the rapid maturation of planning expertise by the mid-1910s. At a more instrumental or meso-level—in revealing the shifting, evolving and contested content of planning through a critical innovative period; and at a biographical or micro level—recording first-hand encounters revelatory of different perceptions and reactions in developing a distinctive planning culture. The substance of the chapter is drawn from eyewitness accounts of three major events: the first city planning exhibition in the United States, the first German international exhibition, and the first British international exhibition.
