In the first half of the 20th century, artists came up with gorgeous designs for New York City, Columbus, Houston, and other American cities, imagining them as havens of efficient transportation, dense urban living, and space age architecture.

Manhattan, New York, by Richard Rummell, 1910-1911


(via Library of Congress)

Houston's skyline in 1980, imagined by he Houston Post in 1920


(via Bill McCurdy)

Frank Lloyd Wright's plan for the Los Angeles Civic Center, 1925

(via KCET)

San Francisco, by Alexander Weygers, c. 1950


(via Imaginary Cities)

Columbus in 1992, envisioned by the architects of Tibbals-Crumley-Musson in 1962



(via Ohio History Host)