Proposed planned community in Minnesota, United States
The
Minnesota Experimental City
(
MXC
) was a proposed
planned community
to be located in northern
Minnesota
(near
Swatara
in
Aitkin County
). Proposed and studied beginning in the 1960s, it would have been constructed as a
public?private partnership
. In contrast with many of the
model cities
of the time, the MXC was to be experimental, trying new things rather than proposing to select from the best of the existing practice. The project was initiated and directed by renowned scientist and
University of Minnesota
dean
Athelstan Spilhaus
, and reflected the confidence of that era in the ability of science and technology to solve the world's problems -- "If we could send a human into space, we could do anything"
[1]
-- and concern that existing cities were failing, blighted by crime, decay and
exodus of the well-off to the suburbs
.
[1]
Supporting MXC were Otto Silha, publisher of the two largest newspapers in the state, the Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune, a four-star general; the physician of president at the time
Lyndon B. Johnson
; civil rights leader
Muriel S. Snowden
; and
Buckminster Fuller
.
[1]
MXC received approximately $250,000 in federal government funds thanks to the support of former Minnesota senator and vice-president
Hubert Humphrey
. The
Boeing
corporation,
Ford Motor Company
and
Honeywell
International Inc. "pledged to invest".
[1]
The city was designed for 250,000 people over 60,000 acres (24,000 ha). In the plan, only 1/6 of the area would be paved, the remainder would be
open space
: parks, wilderness, and farms. Under the influence of
Buckminster Fuller
who sat on the MXC's advisory board, the plan called for the MXC to be partially enclosed by a
geodesic dome
. It would contain a branch of the
University of Minnesota
and
3M
Corporation.
Among other proposed features were:
Demise
[
edit
]
The end of MXC was "abrupt".
[2]
The Minnesota legislature created a Minnesota Experimental City Authority in 1971. It was given the job of finding a site for MXC by 1973. After some months it chose undeveloped land in
Aitkin County
, a little over 100 miles north of Minneapolis.
[2]
Unfortunately for the proposed city, local residents became "outspoken critics", claiming the city would bring urban pollution to their area.
In August 1973 the Minnesota state legislature eliminated the MXC authority's funding.
[2]
In October 2017, roughly 50 years after talk of the city began, a documentary film about MXC, "The Experimental City", directed by Chad Freidrichs, premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Spilhaus, Athelstan (1967)
The Experimental City
, in: Daedalus Vol. 96, No. 4, America's Changing Environment (Fall, 1967), pp. 1129?1141 (on JSTOR)
- Vivrett, Walter K. (1971)
Planning For People: Minnesota Experimental City,
New Community Development Vol. 1: Planning, Process, Implementation, and Emerging Social Concerns, Shirley Weiss (Ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1971.
External links
[
edit
]
- Swatara Minnesota History
- The Town of Swatara, Minnesota
- The Newest New Town
- Creating Future Learning Systems
- Minnesota Experimental City papers, N71
, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, MN.
- Minnesota Experimental City Authority Records
, Minnesota Historical Society, State Archives, Saint Paul, MN.
- Documentary by Chad Freidrichs about MXC
46°53′37″N
93°40′34″W
/
46.89361°N 93.67611°W
/
46.89361; -93.67611