In 1931, New York architect Francis Keally (1889-1978) predicted that futuristic cities would spread out across great expanses like "monstrous eagles." Rather than exalting the skyscraper, Keally suggested that aircraft would inaugurate a flatter new world order, as 2/3 of the buildings would "serve as some kind of landing area for a super-auto gyroplane or a transcontinental express." He advised future architects to study horizontal cities like Constantinople and Fez for their inspiration, rather than cities like New York. In that same year, Keally proposed an idea for hold-up-preventive glass banks (image above from Modern Mechanics, August 1931).
My thanks to Texas A & M Special Collections maestro Hal Hall for this citation! See more on Paleo-Future: The Future That Never Was. For the horizontal cities prediction, see The Daily Capital News and Post-Tribune (Jefferson City, MO) December 6, 1931.
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