Inspired by Steel’s post this morning, I figured that it would be an opportune time to show another vision for Buffalo. This one was first published in 1894 by King Champ Gillette and was aptly referred to as “Metropolis”.
The author of the book was none other than the man behind the Gillette razor, which is funny because the concept behind his “Metropolis” was to form the “Ideal Society”. In the book, which he titled The Human Drift, he calls for The United Company to establish “Metropolis” with the following mantra in mind: “Organized for the purpose of Producing, Manufacturing, and Distributing the Necessities of Life.”
It is fascinating to learn of Gillette’s utopian vision where he plotted (on paper) a futuristic, self-sufficient society in a land where proximity to an enormous natural power source was the key. He pinpointed Niagara Falls and the land east. In his writings he discusses giant mills powered by the energy from The Falls. Gillette’s description is neat when held up to the nearing Pan Am Expo… who knows, maybe word had reached his ears about what was already taking place in Buffalo at that time.
Converted into the electric current, it would drive all the machinery of production, and in the form of light convert “Metropolis” into a fairyland.
The detail in which Gillette goes into when planning the future city is fascinating. He discusses the layout and the composition of the enormous cylindrical towers. The plan accounts for future growth in a city where luxury is a staple for everyone living within the city limits. A naturally lit underground transportation grid, heating and cooling, (above ground) sewage runs, water distribution, and communication – futuristic for the time and still timely as some issues are concerned.
To accommodate these sixty million people, would require twenty°©four thousand apartment buildings, capable of accommodating, on an average, two thousand five hundred persons each which, distributed on the plan proposed, would result in a city that would cover the distance shown in the dotted outline on the map.
Only electrical vehicles may run on the elevated, dust free, city platform… the descriptions get more and more detailed and farfetched, but can you imagine coming up with this sort of premonition back in that time? To see the rest of Gillette’s vision, along with more drawings, just click here.