In the Mojave desert, the dream city that was never built

Diana Budds, on Curbed, telling the story of California City, a small town which was originally planned to be the pinnacle of urbanism in the seventies, now a strange, arid, and hollow place:

Mendelsohn---a Czech emigre, a sociologist who studied the structure of towns and villages, and a Columbia University professor---was eager to get in on the postwar development boom. In 1958, he bought 82,000 acres of land---about 125 square miles---in the Mojave Desert and dreamed of transforming it into a thriving city composed of neighborhoods for medicine, commerce, industry, and academia.

And it was meant to be a place where families could thrive: A three-bedroom house, purchased on spec, started at $8,700 and Mendelsohn built amenities to sweeten the deal, like a golf course, a 20-acre lake, a swimming pool, and recreation fields. He also carved out a street grid and installed water and power infrastructure, readying the land for buildings that never came.

This article reads like the pitch for a new TV show, I just wish it featured a lot more pictures of the town.¹

Like Budds writes, the city “speaks to an enduring and elusive ambition: the search for a perfect place.”