The Seduction of Place: The City in the Twenty-first CenturyOne of the most highly respected architectural historians of our time takes on the question of whether or not we have the cities we need and what we can do to create them. To understand why people love or hate their cities and why cities succeed or fail their inhabitants, Joseph Rykwert examines a broad spectrum of urban centers. Among them are Mexico City, the world's largest metropolis, sprawled around its old center; Berlin, newly reunited and furiously rebuilding; New Delhi and Islamabad, new capitals that exist alongside older towns; grandly planned cities like Chandigarh, Canberra, and Brasilia; and more modest new towns like Columbia, Maryland, and Celebration, Florida, built in an attempt to correct the problems endemic to big cities. Rykwert looks at image, style, and ornament; at public space and buildings; at infrastructure and street layout; at the visual qualities of contrast, strife, and energy that contribute to a city's appeal. Discussing both successes and failures, he suggests ways in which we can retain--or return to--the sense of place and individuation that determines the nourishing character and soul of the urban landscape. |
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Page 99
... urbanists became concerned , even alarmed . In 1906 , a French architect , Eugène Hénard , whose brother and father were ( like himself ) trained at the Ecole des Beaux - Arts and who had invested a great of energy in the care of ...
... urbanists became concerned , even alarmed . In 1906 , a French architect , Eugène Hénard , whose brother and father were ( like himself ) trained at the Ecole des Beaux - Arts and who had invested a great of energy in the care of ...
Page 141
... urbanists and traffic engineers on the occasion of the World Exposition of 1935. It was invaded by the European Community building on the site of the old Abbey of Berlaymont ( known to the locals as Berlaymonstre ) , 10 a tasteless and ...
... urbanists and traffic engineers on the occasion of the World Exposition of 1935. It was invaded by the European Community building on the site of the old Abbey of Berlaymont ( known to the locals as Berlaymonstre ) , 10 a tasteless and ...
Page 241
... Urbanists , " of whom I spoke in chapter six . Although this revival and movement , which has grown out of post- modernism , invokes the Garden City as an ideal , it has quite abandoned the primary planning principle that Howard ( a ...
... Urbanists , " of whom I spoke in chapter six . Although this revival and movement , which has grown out of post- modernism , invokes the Garden City as an ideal , it has quite abandoned the primary planning principle that Howard ( a ...
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American architects architecture Avenue became become blocks Britain British builders building built called Calvert Vaux capital central Chandigarh Chicago church Crystal Palace Daniel Burnham decades designed dominant Ebenezer Howard economic engineer England English Europe European factory Fourier France Frederick Law Olmsted French garden city George Gilbert Scott global Gothic grid grid plan hall high-rise housing impact industry inevitably inhabitants institutions iron J. M. W. Turner land later Le Corbusier linear city London Louis Manhattan manufacturers ment modern monuments move Museum Napoléon III Nations nineteenth century organized ornament Paris Parisian park phalanstery planners political population problems produced proposed quoted railway reformers Revolution River roads Saint seemed settlements skyscraper social society Soviet space square steam Street style suburbs success tion tower town traffic United Urbanists utopian vast workers York zoning