The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.

Originally published in 1961, Images of the American City examines how Americans dealt with the rapid shock of urbanization as it evolved from an agricultural nation. Working from the framework of a social psychologist, Anselm L. Strauss offers a deeper look into the sociological, psychological, and historical perspectives of urban development. He describes how the cultural changes of a space ultimately develop urban imagery by looking towards the urbanization of America from peoples' views of the cities rather than how the cities are themselves. Urban imageries are contrasted with the context of an ideal city and visitors' perspectives of cities. Strauss takes a step back to ask questions about what Americans think and have thought of their cities. How do these cities compare to the image of an ideal city? What are the different perspectives between a city-dweller and a visitor? He contrasts the tension between those within the city and those outside of its urban limits. Strauss describes how space and time are major themes in the symbolic urbanization of a city. He offers a macroscopic view of the city as a whole and shows how urban imageries evolved from changes in lifestyles. He then provides historical breakdowns of different regions of the country and how they were urbanized. This book documents and illustrates the change in American symbolization from the growth of American cities to the union of urbanity and rurality.

The conversion of an agricultural nation into an overwhelmingly urbanized continent was accompanied by Americans' attempts to make sense of what was happening. Within these pages, Anselm L. Strauss depicts the vast and varied color of American urban development and the imagery associated with it. This reprinted classic focuses on individuals rather than institutions. It describes what people have felt about their cities, whether they lived within or outside them. Its concerns are with regional periods of urban growth and development insofar as they relate to individual reactions and life-styles. In analyzing these feelings, the author maintains, one can depict how Americans have lived in their cities and how they have coped with the problems raised by the conditions of urban life.

This book, which has been painstakingly researched and beautifully photographed over many years, takes a close look at twenty of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City. While showing public exteriors, its focus is on the lavish interiors that are associated with the opulence of the Gilded Age--often providing a glimpse inside buildings not otherwise viewable to the public. The pages recount not only the fascinating stories of some of New York's most famous and significant Beaux-Arts buildings, it also recalls the lives of those who commissioned, designed, and built them.