Long before the Ashcan artists reached New York, proponents
of the City Beautiful movement argued that properly designed
cities fostered a healthy and orderly urban environment. New
York's urban planners hoped the city's turn-of-the-century
building boom, which produced such magnificent Beaux-Arts
structures as the main Post Office and the New York Public
Library, would fulfill this idealized vision. But, as the Ashcan
artists recognized, New York's parks, squares, and streets
challenged residents to share public spaces with others. In their
vision, conflicts, accommodations, and negotiations between strangers defined the character of
public spaces and gave an egalitarian energy to urban life. They acknowledged that public
spaces were also sites of display and savored the experience of watching other people and
being watched in turn. Relegating buildings to the background, they placed human activity at
the center of their works, recognizing that no matter how carefully public places were
designed, their character was determined by the people who used them.