Garden Apartments: The History of Low-Rent Utopia

This is a hybrid program, in-person in the gallery and online. Members receive priority registration for the in-person program by emailing programs@skyscraper.org with the names of all guests.

In his new book, Garden Apartments: The History of a Low-Rent Utopia, Joshua B. Freeman explains how a form of multifamily housing with idealistic roots became a ubiquitous model dwelling, promoted by both public entities and private developers. Freeman rescues garden apartments—typically low-rise, multifamily residences that enclose or are surrounded by landscaped gardens—from their invisibility in the American landscape and details their outsized influence on housing and social policy as they helped upgrade living standards for working people.

To register for this FREE program, click on the "GET TICKETS" above to RSVP and reserve your seat in the gallery. Members receive priority registration by emailing programs@skyscraper.org with the names of all guests. Want to become member? Click here! The program will also be livestreamed to the Skyscraper Museum YouTube channel. You do NOT need to register for the livestream.

Joshua B. Freeman

Joshua B. Freeman is distinguished professor of history emeritus at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of American Empire: The Rise of a Global Power, the Democratic Revolution at Home, 1945–2000; Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World; and Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II.

Image: The University of Chicago Press, 2026.