The Shifting Narrative of Suburbia and the American Dream Kristen Ann Greteman Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2016 The pursuit of happiness: the shifting narrative of suburbia and the American Dream Kristen Ann Greteman Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Greteman, Kristen Ann, "The pursuit of happiness: the shifting narrative of suburbia and the American Dream" (2016). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 14983. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/14983 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The pursuit of happiness: The shifting narrative of suburbia and the American Dream by Kristen Greteman A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degrees of MASTER OF SCIENCE MASTER OF COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING Majors: Architecture; Community and Regional Planning Program of Study Committee: Nadia Anderson, Co-Major Professor Jane Marie Rongerude, Co-Major Professor Carlton Wade Basmajian Jelena Bogdanovic Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2016 Copyright © Kristen Greteman, 2016. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................... vi ABSTRACT………………………………. ...................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 Methodology ........................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 2 SUBURBANIZATION AND THE AMERICAN DREAM ........ 11 The Origins of the American Dream ....................................................... 11 The Suburban Dream ............................................................................. 24 CHAPTER 3 CRITICISM OF SUBURBIA ................................................. 39 Sprawl is Placeless ................................................................................. 40 Sprawl Uses Land and Resources ......................................................... 41 Sprawl Supports Class and Racial Segregation ..................................... 45 Sprawl Contributes to Poor Health ......................................................... 49 CHAPTER 4 THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE CONVENTIONAL SUBURB .............................................................................. 52 Automobiles Shape Space ..................................................................... 53 Archetypal Suburban Morphology .......................................................... 55 CHAPTER 5 RESPONSES TO SUBURBIA: THE NEW URBANISM AND CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT ........................... 72 The New Urbanism ................................................................................. 72 Conservation Development .................................................................... 79 Neighborhoods of This Research Study ................................................. 87 CHAPTER 6 CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE OF SUBURBIA: DRAWING FROM EXPERIENCE ........................................ 97 Childhood Experience ............................................................................. 97 iii Previous Living Experience .................................................................... 111 CHAPTER 7 CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE OF SUBURBIA: BELONGING AND INCLUSION THROUGH MORPHOLOGY ................................................................... 114 Morphology Affects the Strength of Community ..................................... 114 CHAPTER 8 CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE OF SUBURBIA: BUILDING A SOCIAL IDENTITY ........................................ 132 Inclusion and Exclusion .......................................................................... 132 Emerging Outlets for Community ............................................................ 140 CHAPTER 9 CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE OF SUBURBIA: SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS ................................................ 144 Proximity to Commercial Amenities is Attractive .................................... 144 Convenience of Walkability ..................................................................... 146 Architectural Distinctiveness ................................................................... 149 CHAPTER 10 CONTINUING THE NARRATIVE OF SUBURBIA: THE AMERICAN DREAM TODAY ..................................... 154 Defining the American Dream Today ...................................................... 155 A Generational Shift ................................................................................ 160 The Pursuit of Happiness ....................................................................... 166 CHAPTER 11 CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 170 Future Research ..................................................................................... 172 REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 174 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW PROTOCOL ..................................................... 182 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Inspirational house in Ankeny, Iowa ............................................. 4 Figure 2 The Delineator magazine from January 1926 ............................... 28 Figure 3 Levittown, New York and the Levittown Cape Cod house ............ 34 Figure 4 1950s advertisement for suburban living ...................................... 35 Figure 5 Streetcar suburb and mid-century suburb .................................... 54 Figure 6 Cincinnati before and after the construction of two interstates. .... 55 Figure 7 Street Patterns of Manhattan, NY, Boston, MA, and Riverside, IL 57 Figure 8 Clarence Perry's neighborhood pod. ............................................ 58 Figure 9 Diagram of street types. ................................................................ 60 Figure 10 Suburban plot pattern ................................................................. 61 Figure 11 Levittown house and Eichler house ............................................ 67 Figure 12 Neo-Historic house ...................................................................... 68 Figure 13 McMansion .................................................................................. 70 Figure 14 Example of New Urbanist development, Celebration, FL ........... 74 Figure 15 Celebration, FL ........................................................................... 77 Figure 16 Houses in Celebration, FL .......................................................... 78 Figure 17 Example of conservation development, Prairie Crossing, IL ...... 80 Figure 18 Prairie Crossing, IL ..................................................................... 85 Figure 19 Location of Waukee and Ankeny, Iowa ....................................... 87 Figure 20 Map of Prairie Trail in Ankeny, Iowa ........................................... 88 v Figure 21 The District and another commercial area in Prairie Trail ........... 89 Figure 22 Houses in Prairie Trail ................................................................. 90 Figure 23 Typical streets within Prairie Trail; Precedence and Dean Park . 92 Figure 24 Map of Glynn Village in Waukee, Iowa ....................................... 93 Figure 25 A typical street in Glynn Village .................................................. 94 Figure 26 Mirrored houses in Glynn Village ................................................ 95 Figure 27 Alley-loading houses; Tall grass prairie in Glynn Village ............ 96 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my inspiration: Thank you to Ms. Kerwin for inspiring me with her love of literature and encouraging me to practice my writing in the first place. Thank you to Doug and Greg for reminding me that you should always shoot for the stars, because life is way too short not to. To my academic support system: Thank you to Nadia for helping me brainstorm ideas, constructively criticizing my writing, and always having thought-provoking feedback. Thank you to Jane for the weekly meetings, the laughter, being my cheerleader, and helping me overcome the doubt when I thought I couldn’t possibly write this thesis. Thank you to Carlton and Jelena for agreeing to be on my committee on top of everything else they do. To my personal support system: Thank you to my parents, my brothers, my sister, Leah, and my friends for enduring my complaints throughout this process. Thank you to my partner, Clark, for always washing the dishes, sensing when I needed a hug, and making me laugh at myself when I wanted to indulge in self-pity. I love you. vii ABSTRACT Suburbia and the American Dream have long, complex history in the United States. As the visual manifestation of the American Dream since the mid-twenty first century, suburbia has been criticized for being placeless, unhealthy, discriminatory, and wasteful. Alternative development methods have been created to combat the growth of suburban sprawl to create “places worth caring about” (Kunstler,