Modernism

The Atlantic Monthly reviews a new book on architect Oscar Niemeyer and his work that- like the infamous city of Brasilia- "continues to enchant and appall students of architecture and urban planning."

A new master plan for Los Angeles's Century City attempts to undo some of the shortcomings that typically plague Modernist master-planned edge cities. Its goals include walkability, greening, and a more appealing public realm.

The machine-city envisioned by Le Corbusier, and made into practice in decades of modernist bureaucracy, has ultimately produced, according to Simon Richards' essay, an antisocial environment, against which urban planning seems to be now reacting.