hannahmadden's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book in too many sittings, so it felt disjointed. I’d probably benefit from a reread. For now, I’m sharing this quote:
“As an artificial world, the city should be so in the best sense: made by art, shaped for human purposes. It is our ancient habit to adjust to our environment, to discriminate and organize perceptually whatever is present to our senses.”
“As an artificial world, the city should be so in the best sense: made by art, shaped for human purposes. It is our ancient habit to adjust to our environment, to discriminate and organize perceptually whatever is present to our senses.”
stashasucks's review against another edition
DNF
The book puts many ideas that we take for granted and undefined, such as that what a city consists of and how all elements intertwines. It offers a different, more technical yet personal analysis of the city™. However, not being from the US, relating to the book and comments about the urbanism of the mentioned North American cities was hard, and although not wrong, the additional examples of how certain elements work better in cities with a more classical history, with mentions of some in Italy, felt generally too simplified. To be fair, the book is described as based on certain parts of a couple cities in the States, so it isn't false advertisement.
I would definitely reccomend it to North Americans that lack the experience of living in a city made for the people, not cars and corporations, and of course those interested in urbanism, as it is a classic of the literature regarding the profession.
The book puts many ideas that we take for granted and undefined, such as that what a city consists of and how all elements intertwines. It offers a different, more technical yet personal analysis of the city™. However, not being from the US, relating to the book and comments about the urbanism of the mentioned North American cities was hard, and although not wrong, the additional examples of how certain elements work better in cities with a more classical history, with mentions of some in Italy, felt generally too simplified. To be fair, the book is described as based on certain parts of a couple cities in the States, so it isn't false advertisement.
I would definitely reccomend it to North Americans that lack the experience of living in a city made for the people, not cars and corporations, and of course those interested in urbanism, as it is a classic of the literature regarding the profession.
evinellab's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed being able to picture the exact parts of Boston he was describing (and pick up on how the city has changed since the 60s), but overall I found the book too dry to really keep my attention. Wonderful diagrams and drawings in the appendix though!
nickfourtimes's review against another edition
3.0
1) "Looking at cities can give a special pleasure, however commonplace the sight may be. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a construction in space, but one of vast scale, a thing perceived only in the course of long spans of time. City design is therefore a temporal art, but it can rarely use the controlled and limited sequences of other temporal arts like music. On different occasions and for different people, the sequences are reversed, interrupted, abandoned, cut across. It is seen in all lights and all weathers."
2) "The image of a given physical reality may occasionally shift its type with different circumstances of viewing. Thus an exprssway may be a path for the driver, and edge for the pedestrian. Or a central area may be a district when a city is organized on a medium scale, and a node when the entire metropolitan area is considered. But the categories seem to have stability for a given observer when he is operating at a given level.
None of the element types isolated above exist in isolation in the real case. Districts are structured with nodes, defined by edges, penetrated by paths, and sprinkled with landmarks. Elements regularly overlap and pierce one another. If this analysis begins with the differentiation of the data into categories, it must end with their reintegration into the whole image."
3) "As connections multiplied, the structure tended to become rigid, parts were firmly interconnected in all dimensions; and any distortions became built in. The possessor of such a map can move much more freely, and can interconnect new points at will. As the density of the image builds up, it begins to take on the characteristics of a total field, in which interaction is possible in any direction and at any distance."
4) "We have the opportunity of forming our new city world into an imageable landscape: visible, coherent, and clear. It will require a new attitude on the part of the city dweller, and a physical reshaping of his domain into forms which entrance the eye, which organize themselves from level to level in time and space, which can stand as symbols for urban life. The present study yields some clues in this respect.
Most objects which we are accustomed to call beautiful, such as a painting or a tree, are single-purpose things, in which, through long development or the impress of one will, there is an intimate, visible linkage from fine detail to total structure. A city is a multi-purpose, shifting organization, a tent for many functions, raised by many hands and with relative speed. Complete specialization, final meshing, is improbable and undesirable. The form must be somewhat noncommittal, plastic to the purposes and perceptions of its citizens."
5) "These clues for urban design can be summarized in another way, since there are common themes that run through the whole set: the repeated references to certain general physical characteristics. These are the categories of direct interest in design, since they describe qualities that a designer may operate upon. They might be summarized as follows:
1. Singularity or figure-background clarity: sharpness of boundary; closure; contrast of surface, form, intensity, complexity, size, use, spatial location.
2. Form Simplicity: clarity and simplicity of visible form in the geometrical sense, limitation of parts (as in the clarity of a grid system, a rectangle, a dome).
3. Continuity: continuance of edge or surface; nearness of parts; repetition of rhythmic interval; similarity, analogy, or harmony of surface, form, or use.
4. Dominance: dominance of one part over others by means of size, intensity, or interest, resulting in the reading of the whole as a principle feature with an associated cluster.
5. Clarity of Joint: high visibility of joints and seams; clear relation and interconnection.
6. Directional Differentiation: asymmetries, gradients, and radial references which differentiate one end from another; or one side from another.
7. Visual Scope: qualities which increase the range and penetration of vision, either actually or symbolically.
8. Motion Awareness: the qualities which make visible to the observer, through both the visual and kinesthetic senses, his own actual or potential motion.
9. Time Series: series which are sensed over time, including simple item-by-item linkages, where one element is simply knitted into the two elements before and behind it, and also series which are truly structured in time and thus melodic in nature.
10. Names and Meanings: non-physical characteristics which may enhance the imageability of an element."
2) "The image of a given physical reality may occasionally shift its type with different circumstances of viewing. Thus an exprssway may be a path for the driver, and edge for the pedestrian. Or a central area may be a district when a city is organized on a medium scale, and a node when the entire metropolitan area is considered. But the categories seem to have stability for a given observer when he is operating at a given level.
None of the element types isolated above exist in isolation in the real case. Districts are structured with nodes, defined by edges, penetrated by paths, and sprinkled with landmarks. Elements regularly overlap and pierce one another. If this analysis begins with the differentiation of the data into categories, it must end with their reintegration into the whole image."
3) "As connections multiplied, the structure tended to become rigid, parts were firmly interconnected in all dimensions; and any distortions became built in. The possessor of such a map can move much more freely, and can interconnect new points at will. As the density of the image builds up, it begins to take on the characteristics of a total field, in which interaction is possible in any direction and at any distance."
4) "We have the opportunity of forming our new city world into an imageable landscape: visible, coherent, and clear. It will require a new attitude on the part of the city dweller, and a physical reshaping of his domain into forms which entrance the eye, which organize themselves from level to level in time and space, which can stand as symbols for urban life. The present study yields some clues in this respect.
Most objects which we are accustomed to call beautiful, such as a painting or a tree, are single-purpose things, in which, through long development or the impress of one will, there is an intimate, visible linkage from fine detail to total structure. A city is a multi-purpose, shifting organization, a tent for many functions, raised by many hands and with relative speed. Complete specialization, final meshing, is improbable and undesirable. The form must be somewhat noncommittal, plastic to the purposes and perceptions of its citizens."
5) "These clues for urban design can be summarized in another way, since there are common themes that run through the whole set: the repeated references to certain general physical characteristics. These are the categories of direct interest in design, since they describe qualities that a designer may operate upon. They might be summarized as follows:
1. Singularity or figure-background clarity: sharpness of boundary; closure; contrast of surface, form, intensity, complexity, size, use, spatial location.
2. Form Simplicity: clarity and simplicity of visible form in the geometrical sense, limitation of parts (as in the clarity of a grid system, a rectangle, a dome).
3. Continuity: continuance of edge or surface; nearness of parts; repetition of rhythmic interval; similarity, analogy, or harmony of surface, form, or use.
4. Dominance: dominance of one part over others by means of size, intensity, or interest, resulting in the reading of the whole as a principle feature with an associated cluster.
5. Clarity of Joint: high visibility of joints and seams; clear relation and interconnection.
6. Directional Differentiation: asymmetries, gradients, and radial references which differentiate one end from another; or one side from another.
7. Visual Scope: qualities which increase the range and penetration of vision, either actually or symbolically.
8. Motion Awareness: the qualities which make visible to the observer, through both the visual and kinesthetic senses, his own actual or potential motion.
9. Time Series: series which are sensed over time, including simple item-by-item linkages, where one element is simply knitted into the two elements before and behind it, and also series which are truly structured in time and thus melodic in nature.
10. Names and Meanings: non-physical characteristics which may enhance the imageability of an element."
sjgochenour's review against another edition
5.0
Perhaps the most readable book about city planning I have ever encountered. Both the style and the ideas are agreeably digestible; who doesn't like the idea that a differentiated, striking city makes it easier to get around? It must be said that for persons who have a painful longing for Boston in their gut, some of the very interesting conceptual framework will get swallowed in the enjoyment of reading detailed descriptions of the streets you also love. There's also something to be said for the interest of a critique written pre-Government Center and pre-Big Dig -- for all the latter's problems, the situation prior to its construction rendered the North End totally null in a unified urban analysis like this one.
hanelisil's review against another edition
3.0
Obviously an urban design classic but I feel like he says as much in ~100 pages as could have been said in 50. Maybe biased because I'm reading for a class and wish I had less reading. But the navigability he discusses via his concept of "imageability" makes a lot of sense.
beyond3va's review against another edition
4.0
after taking almost 8/9 months to read it, im very glad i did. definetely a must for people in the city business.
great ideas, that while it may seem repetitive and not very innovative NOW, they really truly changed things.
loved the part about the fact that we need to experience cities faster than we used to and that the designer must respond to that.
great ideas, that while it may seem repetitive and not very innovative NOW, they really truly changed things.
loved the part about the fact that we need to experience cities faster than we used to and that the designer must respond to that.