ABSTRACT
By the late nineteenth century, processes of modernization had speeded up and industrial mechanization of the building trades and bureaucratization of planning were taking hold. Rapid urban growth continued and people were witnessing immense changes to their cities as old areas were “modernized” and new ones were built to the modern aesthetic of straight lines and rectilinear, unornamented buildings. Within the emerging profession of city planning, an engineering approach was dominant. Public spaces were increasingly designed around the main goal of efficiently moving ever increasing amounts of carriage traffic. A faster, larger, less detailed, and less finely nuanced way of life was coming into being and was widely embraced.
