In the later half of the 19th century the first housing reform measures were enacted. Such early regulatory laws set minimal standard for housing construction. Implementation occurred only slowly as government will was absent. The progressive era had also recognized the need for recreation. Parks, playgrounds were carved out in congested areas. Gradually games and sport facilities were created not only for children but also for adults.

The grandeur of the European vision took root in the United States through the City Beautiful movement. The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, developed in Chicago according to principles set out by American architect Daniel Burnham provided its cardinal ideology.. The architectural style of the exposition established an ideal that many cities imitated. The archetype of the City Beautiful was characterized by grand malls and majestically sited civic buildings in Greco-Roman architecture and it was replicated in civic centres and boulevards, contrasting with and in protest against the surrounding disorder and ugliness.

Now while the “City Beautiful Movement” was especially influential on the European continent and in the design of American civic centres, it was the utopian concept of Garden City—first described by British social reformer Ebenezer Howard in his book Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1902) that shaped the appearance of residential areas in the US and Great Britain. Howard viewed the industrial city as simply too large. It had lost its human scale. He proposed, instead, that the new development follow a Garden City approach that melded factory construction with countryside living. The Garden City represented the best of city and country living.