Henry Wright

Wright, Henry, 1878–1936, American landscape architect and community planner, b. Lawrence, Kans., studied architecture at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. He was widely recognized as a leader in the movement for the building of better communities. He served (1918) as town planner for the Housing Division of the U.S. Emergency Fleet Corporation. Wright was a founding member of the Regional Planning Association of America, along with Lewis Mumford and Clarence Stein. This group imported Ebenezer Howard's garden city model from England to the United States. With Stein, Wright designed model communities at Sunnyside, L.I., and at Radburn, N.J. Radburn is especially noted for its superblock plan. He was consultant to the New York state commission on housing and regional planning during the 1920s, and later, to the Public Works Administration. Wright also taught at Columbia Univ. during the 1930s. He wrote Rehousing Urban America (1935).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.