Representation of Places: Reality and Realism in City Design [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520918269

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REPRESENTATION

OF

PLACES

The Publisher gratefully acknowledges the contribution provided by the Art Book Endowment Fund of the Associates of the University of California Press, which is supported by a major gift from the Ahmanson Foundation.

Representation of Places Reality and Realism in City Design PETER

BOSSELMANN

University of California Press Berkeley

Los Angeles

London

An earlier version of Chapter 4, entitled "Times Square," was published in Places 4, no. 1 (1987). An earlier version of Chapter 6, "Urban Form and Climate," was published in the Journal of the American Planning Association 20 (1995). University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1 9 9 8 by

The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Bosselmann, Peter. Representation of places : reality and realism in city design / Peter Bosselmann. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-20658-4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. City planning. 2. Communication in architectural design. 1. Title. NA9031.B69

1997

7ii'.4-dc2i

97-8i

Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

For Dorit, Thea, Sophia, and Margerete

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments Introduction PART O N E :

viii

xii

A H I S T O R Y OF R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

IN CITY D E S I G N

1 Concept and Experience: Two Views of the World 2 The Search for a Visual Language in Design 3 Images in Motion PART TWO:

20

48

T H E C I T Y IN T H E L A B O R A T O R Y

4 Times Square, New York

IOO

104

5 Downtown San Francisco

120

6 Downtown Toronto: Urban Form and Climate PART T H R E E :

REALITY AND REALISM

158

7 Representing the Experience of Places 8 Representation and Design 9 Who Watches the Watchers? Notes

206

Selected Bibliography Index

223

216

186 198

166

138

2

I

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many friends helped me with the preparation of the manuscript. Puja Kumar drew the historical

Jack Kent, Professor Emeritus and founder of the Department of City and Regional Planning at

maps. Cheryl Parker dedicated Tuesday morning

the University of California at Berkeley, read and

every week for an entire year to tracing thirty-nine

commented on an early draft of this book. Jay Clai-

drawings of a walk through Venice. Thomas Krone-

borne, Raymond Lifchez, and Nezar Alsayyad gave

meyer not only prepared the footprint maps and

valuable advice after reading successive versions.

completed the historical maps but also modeled,

M y friend Allan Jacobs, working in an office adja-

by computer, the Minerva Temple in Assisi. His

cent to mine on his book Great Streets, coached me

dedication went far beyond what I could reasonably

and all my helpers on mapmaking and the prepara-

expect from a busy graduate student. Jennifer Avery

tion of eye-level views. In fact, the map compari-

prepared the perspective of multiple station points

sons in Chapter 3 were triggered by his work on

in Chapter I, a challenge to her, and to anybody

streets. Allan repeatedly went over chapters of my

else, for that matter. She correctly refers to Brunel-

book and gave me his insights on how to present

leschi's view from Santa Maria del Fiore as "her

the information. I hope we can spend many more

image." Jennifer also rendered the computer images

years teaching and doing research together. Ken-

for the San Francisco chapter and supervised the

neth Craik from the Psychology Department at

production of all other computer-generated images.

U C Berkeley was responsible for the validation

Jeff Clark provided essential help with image ren-

study described in Chapter 3. He was one of the

dering in the final phase of the production. Ray

co-founders of the Environmental Simulation Lab-

Isaacs—one of the first doctoral students I have

oratory and has continued to be involved in its

met who is interested in writing on pedestrian

work. Donald Appleyard started the laboratory in

movement and the sense of time—created image

1968 after teaching and working with Kevin Lynch

sequences of the San Francisco computer model.

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Leila Pozo, who came from Milan to work at the

Donald did not see his laboratory applied to the

Berkeley Environmental Simulation Laboratory,

projects described, but his influence on this book

began the work on the San Francisco computer

is significant.

model that Ray and others completed. Mirelle Rodier inked drawings for the Times

David Van Arnam and Kaye Bock were responsible for the work of word processing. Neither of

Square chapter and prepared facade drawings for

them complained about my handwriting, although

the density study in Chapter 8 from designs pro-

it offered them plenty of opportunities. Stephanie

duced by Lotte Johansen, who came from Copen-

Fay's careful editing at U C Press strengthened the

hagen to the simulation laboratory. Lotte's work

book.

influenced all aspects of the density research. Stephano Fantuz, from Udine, came two years

Kevin Gilson, who had been involved with the Environmental Simulation Laboratory in one form

in succession to learn about visual simulation.

or another since 1979, was responsible for its day-

I am very grateful to him for arranging with offi-

to-day operation and worked on all the projects

cials in charge of the Florence cathedral to open

presented in this book. He also developed the tables

the main portal of Santa Maria del Fiore. He took

for determining correct viewing distances in Chap-

the 90-degree images of Brunelleschi's view with a

ter 7. I am very grateful to him and learned to de-

special camera. To see the heavy doors swing open

pend on his insights. William Kanemoto, who took

and reveal the famous view from inside is un-

over from Kevin in 1994, contributed a sequence of

forgettable.

images from one of the current lab projects.

Jim Bergdoll did library research for me on Leonardo da Vinci and Brunelleschi.

Tony Hiss, who was writing for the New Yorker when the Times Square project was developed,

volunteered his help and turned my matter-of-fact

I thank all my friends and my family. Dorit

descriptions of the simulations into a finished film

read the manuscript, and her comments included

script. Jason Robards volunteered to narrate the

the final changes I have made.

film. Darleen McCloud, Nicholas Quinelle, Hugh Hardy, and Kent Barwick helped direct the New York project described in the fourth chapter. T h e Toronto project (Chapter 6) was awarded as a contract to the Environmental Simulation Laboratory, but the city of Toronto insisted that I select Canadian partners. Klaus and Marjut Dunker and Robert Wright from the University of Toronto offered to help. T h e work in San Francisco (Chapter 5), chronologically the first of the three case studies, became possible with the help of two former students, Terrance O'Hare and Juan Flores, who stayed on at the laboratory after finishing their studies. M y Berkeley colleague Edward Arens was essential in carrying out the work for Toronto and San Francisco. Funding for the preparation of the manuscript came from the U C Berkeley Committee on Research, from the Beatrix Ferrand Fund at the U C Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture, and from the Environmental Simulation Laboratory at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, U C Berkeley. As dean of the U C Berkeley College of Environmental Design, Richard Bender has watched protectively over the growth of the laboratory and helped to expand the idea of it to New York City, where a laboratory was underwritten by the Kaplan Fund, the Vincent Astor Foundation, and the Revson Foundation. Later Dean Bender generously offered his advice and assistance to Shigero Ito and Osamu Koide, who established a similar facility at Roppongi, in the heart ofTokyo. Professor Koide invited me to Japan to join the Advanced Science and Technology Research Center at Tokyo University during the time I was working on the manuscript. M y Japanese friends Shigeru Sato, Naomishi Kurata, and Toshio Oyama gave me many opportunities to present the themes of this book to professional audiences.

x

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

This is a book about the visual representation of

conceptually. Charts show statistics, diagrams show

city form. It asks how the experience of cities can

flow or movement, and maps indicate structure and

be represented and explores the influence of repre-

layout. Most professional representations are like

sentation on city design. The architects, engineers,

theory in that they reduce reality into easily and

and city planners trained in the design of cities

clearly communicable facts or measurements. But

acquire the skills necessary to represent what exists

the facts remain abstract. Professionals understand

and what might become reality. But because the

conceptual representations—or claim to—but few

richness and complexity of the real world cannot be

people outside the professions can read the infor-

completely represented, they must, out of necessity,

mation, let alone understand what it would be like

select from reality an abstraction of actual condi-

to walk through the streets or neighborhoods de-

tions. For them the process of representation is a

scribed in such representations.

complex form of reasoning. What they choose to

Professionals rarely represent the way people

represent influences their view of reality and very

move through urban places, looking down streets

significantly defines the outcome of designs and

or standing in a square alone or with others—actual

plans, and thus the future form of cities.1

conditions that people can imagine. Representing

This book asks how the creation of images

the experience of urban places means showing con-

affects what gets built. How good are images as

ditions as they are perceived by the human senses,

surrogates of reality? Can images be made that rep-

chiefly vision. Animation for special-effect cinema,

resent a match between design as a product of the

sketches, photo montage, watercolor paintings,

mind and a future reality?

or computer-generated eye-level views—all these

Much has been written about the form of cities.

are better understood than conceptual representa-

People in various disciplines have explained why

tions, and for that reason some professionals have

cities have taken on their forms and how they

searched for ways to combine the conceptual

might develop in the future. Although much has

method with the vibrant and empathic experiential

also been written about ideal communities—how

method. Much is to be gained from such a union

people should live in cities—the literature includes

in representation. T h e combination might help to

comparatively little on the conception of city de-

overcome the split between sense and thought that

sign. Professional planners and designers generally

Rudolf Arnheim has termed a deficiency disease

know the power and limitations of representation,

in modern man.

but they may take for granted how representation

Professionals increasingly rely on computer

influences design thinking. An examination of the

technology to store geographic and other detailed

relationship between design, the design media, and

spatial information. They can use it to display both

reality is timely now, as the computerized produc-

conceptual and perceptual images. Although in

tion of images is changing the way designers do

practice few designers and planners have integrated

their work. It may also change their thinking about

the two modes of representation, such an integra-

design.

tion is technically possible. It would make project

Design images portray change, which members

information more accessible and proposals more

of the public view with their own concerns in

readily comprehensible to the public. But the new

mind; the representation of places to be built trig-

technology can also be employed to communicate

gers emotions as well as calculated thought. People

design more persuasively, and this possibility raises

ask who is likely to be affected by design, who will

important questions: about the documentary qual-

gain from it, and who might lose. Although the

ity of images, that is, the values and biases that rep-

people who live in cities experience urban places

resentations encourage or discourage, and about the

firsthand, design professionals explain these places

credibility of the professionals who produce them.

T h e ideas illustrated in this book have sprung from experiments conducted in the Environmental

sciences of our culture; therein lies the pleasure of studying the topic. T h e sources for this work in-

Simulation Laboratory at the University o f Cali-

clude the writings o f architects, planners, and his-

fornia at Berkeley, 2 dedicated to improving visual

torians in the visual arts as well as physicists, com-

communication in urban design. 3 Although the

puter scientists, and perceptual psychologists.

question this book tries to answer—about the influ-

I ask for patience from experts in these fields.

ence of representation on the design of cities—

T h e words "representation" and "places," frequently

might rarely be asked, the problems implicit in it

used in the text, have different meanings in the vari-

have been with us for a long time. Part O n e pre-

ous disciplines. For some, the relationship between

sents a history o f professional representation in the

visual perception and representational images is

West, where during the Renaissance Italian archi-

necessary and intimate; for others, it is unnecessary,

tects perfected conceptual and experiential repre-

artificial, and misleading. 5 Architects, engineers,

sentation in a form similar to that used by archi-

and planners belong to the first group. Their repre-

tects and urban designers today. T h e chapters o f

sentations capture elements o f reality for manipula-

Part O n e discuss urban places in Europe that have

tion (that is, design) and for presentation to others

come into being through conceptual design during

as a substitute for reality.

the centuries since the invention o f accurate town

W h e n designers speak o f representation, they do

maps in 1502. T h e analysis is based on comparative

not mean only images that show an observer what

map studies and secondary sources.

the representer has seen. More frequently, designers

Part T w o presents case studies carried out over a ten-year period in which design and planning proposals illustrated concept and experience com-

represent things they have never seen but have only imagined or invented. 6 Equally in need o f clarification, the word

bined. T h e application of more understandable

"places" refers to conditions we can imagine: inside

media has not improved all the environments stud-

or outside, in front or behind, beside something or

ied; that I can already admit at this point. T h e

someone, viewing out from, or being sheltered.

chapters o f Part T w o illustrate how the visual capa-

To choose among such conditions is part o f being

bilities o f the Environmental Simulation Laborato-

human. 7 People define places according to their

ry at Berkeley were applied to projects in N e w York

own position in space, their relation to physical

City, San Francisco, and Toronto.

space, and to fellow humans within space. But

Part Three looks at the new imaging technology

places can discourage and encourage, exclude and

that allows professionals to explain their designs

include. I use the word "places" broadly in all its

more clearly than before. T h e chapters in this sec-

dimensions—physical, social, psychological, eco-

tion of the book discuss where technology is likely

nomic, and political.

to take professional representations and where pro-

Those w h o write about the making o f places

fessionals might like to take technology to bridge

rarely concern themselves with representation, nor

the split between concept and experience. G o o d

do those w h o write about representation mention

representations improve our ability to imagine and

places. T h u s this book. It is written primarily for

to conceive designs. But those preparing such repre-

urban designers, architects, and landscape archi-

sentations also exercise control over information.

tects, w h o depend on concrete representations for

Because of the adversarial context o f city design and

their own understanding o f what they do and for

planning, professionals must appraise the aesthetic

the evaluation o f their work by others. Concrete

and ethical implications of their tools. 4

representation—that is what this book is about.

A book about images, even specialized professional images, has to draw from the various arts and

XIV

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER

ONE

Concept and Experience: Two Views of the World

Pictures do not mimic what we see. In fact, no

the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore the view of

optical system exists to mimic the tasks performed

the Baptistery San Giovanni di Firenze. Apparently

by our eyes, although now, more than 150 years

he executed the painting in perfect linear perspec-

after the invention of photography, we assume that

tive. It is known that he painted the picture on a

photography truthfully records the world around

wooden panel, although there is much speculation

us. But photography is based on a convenient geo-

in art-historical literature about both the method

metric fiction called "central projection." Picture

Brunelleschi used to produce it and the date he fin-

taking, film, television recording, and eye-level

ished it. 1 The painting is lost, and the method used

drawings rendered by hand or computer all rely on

was not recorded until after his death.

the concept of central projection, or linear perspective, a technique that offers a somewhat limited

According to his biographer Antonio Manetti, Brunelleschi's demonstration went as follows:

representation of reality. These limitations have been with us since

He [Brunelleschi] had made a hole in the panel

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1466) carried out an

on which there was his painting

experiment associated with the discovery of linear

as small as a lentil on the painting side of the

perspective, 1 a method for representing a place in

panel, and on the back it opened pyramidically,

a manner that approximates reality. This artisan-

like a woman's straw hat, to the size of a ducat

engineer gave Florence the magnificent dome

or a little more. He wished the eye to be placed

(1420-1436) of the cathedral, the first such engi-

at the back, where it was large, with one hand

neering accomplishment in the Western world since

bringing it close to the eye and with the other

Roman antiquity. He was also a painter. Much has

holding a mirror opposite, so that there the

been written about his experiment with a painting—

painting came to be reflected back.. .which

what Rudolf Arnheim calls Brunelleschi's peep

in being seen, it seemed as if the real thing was

show. A decade prior to the construction of the

seen. I have had the painting in my hand and

dome, Brunelleschi had painted from the portal of

have seen it many times in these days, so I can give testimony. 3

The hole was

Indeed, Brunelleschi's contemporaries must have

We can only speculate that the late-fourteenth-

been stunned when he took viewers to the exact

century invention of flat mirror glass, produced on

spot where he had painted the Baptistery. Brunelle-

the Venetian island of Murano, gave him the idea

schi had set up his painted panel on an easel, five

of a two-dimensional representation of the multi-

feet inside the cathedral's main portal. 4 He had

dimensional world around him.

drilled a hole in the center of his picture to control

Since Brunelleschi, instructions in perspective

the position of the viewer's eye. Brunelleschi asked

generally start like those in Alberti's Delia Pittura:

his viewer to look from the back of his painting

"First of all, on the surface on which I am going to

through the hole into a mirror that he held approx-

paint, I draw a rectangle of whatever size I want,

imately a foot from the painted side of the panel.

which I regard as an open window through which

T h e observer saw the reflection of the painting

the subject to be painted is to be seen." 8 In

in the mirror. When the mirror was lowered, the

Brunelleschi's experiment, the frame of the cathe-

observer could confirm the painting's accuracy

dral door (today, as in Brunelleschi's day, 3.80

by comparing the painted scene with the reality

meters wide) was his "window." The distance be-

framed by the dark doorway of the cathedral.

tween the doorway and the exact place where the

When the mirror was raised, the observer would

picture was painted was approximately 1.75 meters.

again see the reflection of the painting. A person

T h e two-to-one ratio of door width to distance

standing where Brunelleschi stood when he painted

means that a person standing where Brunelleschi

the image could see the Baptistery in the center of

stood to paint and looking out toward the piazza

the scene, the Misericordia on the left, and the

could take in a 90-degree view between the up-

Canto alia Paglia on the right.

rights of the door. 9

Brunelleschi sought to increase the realism of the

Such explicit instructions guide an effort to

picture: "For as much of the sky as he had to show,

re-create what Brunelleschi's painting must have

that is where the walls in the picture vanished into

shown and what could be seen through the hole

the air, he put burnished silver, so that the air and

in it. T h e re-creation of Brunelleschi's experiment

the natural skies might be reflected in it; and thus

clarifies the shortcomings of linear perspective.

also the clouds which are seen in that silver are moved by the wind, when it blows." 5

What is most noticeable when the cathedral's heavy doors swing open (they open only on special

More than a decade after the experiment, Leon

occasions) is the immediate presence of the Baptis-

Battista Alberti credited Brunelleschi as the inven-

tery, with the morning sun illuminating the splen-

tor of linear perspective and called it constructione

did gold panels of the Portal del Paradiso. When

legitima.6 Now, nearly six centuries later, art histori-

the eyes grow accustomed to the scene, they begin

ans believe Brunelleschi's experiment "ultimately

to take in the details of the Baptistery (the arches,

was to change the modes, if not the course of West-

the inlaid marble) and the people in front of the

ern history." 7 Brunelleschi demonstrated a tech-

Portal del Paradiso who, noticing the open cathe-

nique for representing the world as we see it.

dral doors, step inside, as if that were the normal way to enter the cathedral. All this the spectator sees while looking at the facade of the Baptistery. T h e square to the right and left is visible, but only with a turn of the head. Similarly, the sky above the Baptistery can be seen only by tilting back the head.

4

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Portal del Paradiso, 17-degree horizontal angle,80 mm focal length.

C O N C E P T

AND

E X P E R I E N C E

5

View from the Portal of Santa Maria del Fiore,taken with a 90-degree angle of view, 21 m m focal length (60 m m camera format).

6

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

IN

CITY

DESIGN

A modern camera equipped with an adjustable zoom lens can reframe the view to take in everything Brunelleschi would have seen through the frame of the cathedral door. To take in the entire 90-degree field of view, the zoom lens would have to be adjusted to a 21 mm focal length. 10 In the viewfinder (at 21 mm), however, the Baptistery appears farther away than it actually is, and the piazza more spacious. If the zoom lens is adjusted until the dimensions of the Baptistery in the viewfinder are identical to those of the Baptistery as the eye sees it, that is, to a 65 mm focal length, the field of

Portal del Paradlso, 27-degree horizontal angle,65 mm focal length.

view in the viewfinder becomes much narrower— approximately 30 degrees, or one-third of the view seen through the cathedral door frame. Although the Baptistery appears at the same distance and size, one cannot take all of it in through the viewfinder. Brunelleschi must have given distance perception serious consideration. If he wanted to verify the painting's accurate recording of the view, he must have concerned himself with the match between the objects in that view and their reflection in the mirror held up to the painting. Only if the mirror was held at the correct distance could there have been such a match. That distance would have depended on the size of the painting and the angle

Portal del Paradiso,60-degree horizontal angle, 35 mm focal length.

of the view. The view through the hole to the mirror image of the painting showed no more than what can be seen in a 30-degree cone of vision; that is, it included only slightly more than the portal of the Baptistery. The painting in all likelihood showed more; and if the hole in its back side was large enough, it might have been possible to move the eye, thus seeing the buildings and the sky Manetti so vividly described. The experiment with an adjustable focal length demonstrates one of the shortcomings of a linear perspective as a two-dimensional recording of the three-dimensional world around us. The problem lies in its imposed conditions. To close one eye and hold the head still at a single predetermined point in space is not the normal way of looking at the world. Under such conditions, matters that relate to the distance and dimensions of objects cannot be judged with certainty.

C O N C E P T

A N D

E X P E R I E N C E

7

Opposite:

It would be possible to overcome some of the

Multiple-station-point perspective.

problems inherent in linear perspective by keeping the zoom lens fixed at 65 mm and using the camera to scan the scene. The resulting series of pictures would start at the Misericordia on the left, move toward the Baptistery and the Canto alia Paglia, and end where Via de Martelli meets the piazza on the right. This photographic survey would require a matrix of pictures and would scan the scene in four horizontal rows. Photographic prints of these negatives at a size of 4 x 6 inches mounted on a large board show the full 90-degree field of view. If the photoboard is held at eye level, approximately 12 inches away, it shows the actual distance relationship the eye sees in the scene. The scene on the board can then be scanned more naturally with both eyes, which would not be limited to the narrow predetermined field of view seen in the viewfinder but could wander across the scene as they would if one were to stand in the actual place, looking at a slightly different perspective with each split-second move of the eyes. Painters of large canvases commonly practiced such multiple-station-point perspective. In a large Portal del Paradiso, c o m p o s i t e v i e w created from t w e n t y images

urban scene like a view down Venice's Grand

taken w i t h a 27-degree horizontal angle,65 m m focal length.

Canal, a CanalettO might give a detail its own focal

8

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

IN

C I T Y

D E S I G N

inr-n

9H

J* . i t S E s ^ s

point and vanishing lines, slightly different from

such a stroll is taken in with the eyes. But all the

those of the main scene. Such a painting has a

senses work together in the experience of the

stronger spatial effect on the viewer than even a

square. The sense of touch registers the condition

very large photographic print. As the eyes of the

of the paving between the cathedral and the Baptis-

viewer wander across the canvas, the picture places

tery. Body orientation conveys a sense of the prox-

the viewer in the scene. T h e viewer appears to be

imity of walls, even those outside the field of view.

part of the picture because with every move of the

Hearing is involved. Sound is reflected back by the

eyes, a correct perspective is seen." The line draw-

buildings that frame the square. After taking such a

ing created from photographs taken through the

stroll, one can look at the Baptistery from different

portal of Santa Maria del Fiore captures the multi-

angles and judge its dimensions more accurately

ple station points of a 65 mm lens; it also captures

than before, because these now relate to the dimen-

time, showing how people opposite, in front of the

sions of the body. •

Portal del Paradiso, move on. T h e reader, holding the drawing close to the eyes, can now judge the distance to the Baptistery and the dimensions of the structure more easily. T h e eye perceives a multitude of reference points, and therefore the viewer appears to be part of the scene. Anyone interested in the dimensions of the square in front of the cathedral and the proportions of the buildings surrounding it, however, would be well advised to step out of the cathedral portal and stroll around the square. Much of the experience of

CONCEPT

AND

EXPERIENCE

9

r f "

Émr'-^

4

1/ « s i

u

.

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jü

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,,

'

7

Whereas the physical dimensions of the real world

Map of Imola by Leonardo da Vinci, 1502, Royal Library at Windsor,

can be judged by direct experience, any future

Codex Atlantlcus, no. 12284. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

reality has to be modeled. It is not coincidental that the art of modeling was perfected at the time that linear perspective came into use. During the Renaissance it was common to build large and precise models of building designs. James Ackerman writes that Giuliano da Sangallo built a model of St. Peter's in Rome that was big enough for a person to stand inside. 12 Brunelleschi's view tries to capture the world as the eye sees it. Almost ninety years after his experi-

IO

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

ment, on the eve o f the Renaissance, a second method o f representing the world was perfected. Originally called ichnographia, or plan view, it is an abstraction of reality in which a place is viewed from above. Certainly the plan view does not depict a city in the way it is experienced. This method o f representation was first used, as it is used today, to show accurately the dimensions o f streets and city blocks as well as the general layout o f a city, with its relationship to surrounding places. In the first known example of a plan view resembling modern city maps, Leonardo da V i n c i drew the small town o f Imola, located on Italy's Emilia Romana halfway between Bologna and Faenza. 13 Leonardos map differs from plan diagrams like the early-ninth-century parchment of St. Gall. A l t h o u g h the historian Howard Saalman has traced the composition o f cloisters, church, and chapter hall on the St. Gall map to the great colonnaded square o f the Forum o f T r a j a n in Rome, framed by a basilica and temples, 14 the map itself represents neither historical reality nor a plan for building.

The Plan of St. Gall, early ninth century.® Stiftsbibliothek,St.Gall,

It was an organizational scene that served as a guide

Switzerland.

in the layout o f numerous abbeys from the ninth century on. Leonardo da Vinci's Imola map showed actual conditions. In 1502 Cesare Borgia commissioned Leonardo to design repairs for the city's fortifications, ruined during a siege in 1499. As Architecto e Ingegnero Generale, Leonardo drew an image o f this town that drastically departed from representations c o m m o n at the time. Late medieval plans represented cities iconically. T h e y showed a single perspective, with selected buildings chosen to symbolize the city, drawn in elevation. These buildings were distinguished in size according to their chiefly religious virtue, not their actual dimensions. For Leonardo, such a representation was o f little use. N e w ballistic methods required attention to a fortification's plan dimensions and the accurate measurement of angles. For determining exact bearings, Leonardo used a transit, known since antiquity, and a magnetic compass, 1 ' an invention

C O N C E P T

A N D

E X P E R I E N C E

Imola in comparison, 1502 and 1984.The 1984 plan view (shaded area) Is Imposed on the 1502 line drawing by Leonardo.

200 Meters

12

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

from China that had come to the Western world

New ways of looking at reality, however, can pro-

through the Arabian Sea. Leonardo also used a

voke surprising reactions from those unaccustomed

modified odometer, a device known since Roman

to them. One sixteenth-century source reports that

times, to measure distance. 16

Leonardo was ridiculed when he presented an un-

With these three instruments, Leonardo surveyed Imola and constructed an ichnographic city

solicited map of ancient Rome to the courtiers of Pope Leo X:

plan. 17 He was inspired by Leon Battista Albertis Descripto Urbis Romae, a brief description of a

In telling you something about the kind of

survey of Rome, written between 1443 and 1455.

consideration that courtiers have for men of

Although no example of Albertis survey work has

ingenuity and draftsmanship, I recall a wonder-

survived, his methodology is clear in another of his

ful cartoon which is impressed in my memory.

writings, the Ludi matematici. Apparently Alberti

A gentile intelletto had portrayed Rome as it was

did not use a compass but wrote that any point

in antiquity, not as it is now; he presented his

in a city can be fixed by establishing its polar coor-

work to the courtiers believing that they would

dinates. Using Albertis technique, Leonardo drew

express their enthusiasm for it, as it is customary

a polar grid, with the town square at the center of

of people who have no other way of prising

the map, locating all plan measurements of the

themselves than that of giving credit to the in-

town on the grid.

genuity of others. And while he was explaining

The Imola map is the earliest surviving artifact

to them how he had subdivided the city into

of the Renaissance revolution in cartographic tech-

seven parts, that is in as many parts as there are

niques. Every element of the town in the ground

hills, they started to let the wax of their candles

plan is represented as if it could be seen from an

pour down on the drawing. He was so intent on

infinite number of viewpoints, each perpendicular

his explanation that he did not notice that, and

to the earths surface. Every point on the map is

he went on saying that this is the Pantheon,

rendered equidistant from the observer. Modern

which Marcus Agrippa dedicated to all the

high-altitude photogrammetry of the town largely

Gods, and this is the Templum Pacis, and here

concurs with Leonardo's map, confirming Leonar-

are the Baths of Diocletian, here the Antoniane,

do's astonishing achievement. Since no written doc-

and again: through this passage, above such great

ument of Leonardo's technique has survived, we

columns, one could go from the main Forum

rely on a letter Raphael wrote while in service to

to the Campidoglio. In the meantime the wax

Pope Leo X, proposing to map Rome according to

of the candles continued to pour down, and

Leonardos

specifications.18

Raphael died in 1520,

before he could finish his work. •

he continued to go on by saying: here in the Vatican was the foundation of the Domus Aurea of Nero, here is the bridge of Horace, here Hadrian's sepulchre, which is now the Castle of S. Agnolo, and from which one could watch the bellum navale. And when he arrived to point out the Colosseum, the courtiers raised their candles pretending to praise the Ancients. Our good man continued his explanation, pointing out the places of the performances of the gladiators and of the fights of the wild beasts, and giving measurements of aqueducts, of painted grottoes,

CONCEPT

AND

EXPERIENCE

13

Detail, m a p of R o m e , 1736-1748. Giambattista Nolli, The

grande di Roma oiGiambattista

Pianta

Nolli in Facsimile, H i g h m o u r t , N.Y.:

J. H. A r o n s o n , 1984. N o t e t h e Theater of P o m p e i i in t h e u p p e r m i d d l e of t h e m a p b e t w e e n t h e n u m b e r s 635 a n d 633.

of the Metae, of obelisks, of the Column of

the cartoon with their candles, breaking into

Trajan, of the arches ofTitus, of Septimius, of

such laughter that one could only feel utter

Constantine, and of all the others. Then he

disgust at their behavior. 19

explained how many colossi and marble statues there were in Rome, and how many statues of

14

More than two centuries after Leonardo com-

bronze and gold; really, as I can tell you, he was

pleted his Imola map, Giambattista Nolli under-

explaining every detail in a marvellous way. And

took his famous survey of Rome. The map that re-

the courtiers, who as architects of human suffer-

sulted from his work is a high point of mapmaking.

ing could understand the Ionic, the Corinthian,

Nolli began as early as 1736 and finished in 1748.

and the Composite Orders in the same way as

He started work on the survey of Rome after being

they could understand Chaldean, Hebrew,

given an extraordinary pass by the Vicar of Rome,

Greek, and Latin, set fire to one of the sides of

Cardinal Gandagni, that reads: "Since His Holiness

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Rome, 1991, d r a w n at t h e scale of t h e Nolli m a p using t h e same graphic conventions.

has given permission for the publication of a new,

districts. 21 In his surprisingly accurate map, Nolli

exact Map of the City of Rome, and since the

employs a simple and effective convention of using

geometra surveyor assigned to this task, Giambat-

voids to represent publicly accessible space and

tista Nolli by name, must have access and entry to

solid black to represent the coverage of buildings

all the Basilicas, churches and convents, even those

on a given block. His map holds up well in com-

of Cloistered Nuns, in order to take the necessary

parison with the detailed modern maps made for

measurements, His Holiness orders that the above-

the 1991 Atlas of Rome, 2 2 though Nolli made some

named geometra be permitted to enter with 4 or 5

interesting mistakes. For example, the representa-

Companions."

20

T h e first use of Nolli's map appears to have been

tion of the Roman ruin of the Theater of Pompeii is largely Nolli's invention. (The theater is situated

political. In 1744 a print of it was used to redefine

in the upper middle portion of the Nolli map.)

the borders of the city's fourteen administrative

T h e location is correct, and the large arch can still

C O N C E P T

AND

E X P E R I E N C E

15

Detail of a map of Rome produced at the time of the Emperor Septimus Severus, 203-211 a.d. Only fragments of the map have survived.Traced and reproduced at the same scale as the Nolli map. Note the location of the Theater of Pompeii and its orientation in the upper portion of the map.

l6

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Location of ruins according t o an archaeological survey. Source: Carta de Centra Storico di Roma, 1988 (1:1000).Three survey maps were used t o reproduce t h e detail s h o w n here: Largo Argentina, Isola Tiberina, and C a m p o des Flori.

CONCEPT

AND

EXPERIEN

be seen in the fabric of Rome today, but the theater

about places between the clarity of abstractions

opens to the east, not the north.

(the view from above) and the befuddling richness

Over the centuries, the Nolli map has sustained

and confusion of the ground-level view. These two

its appeal. T h e map reads like a written language,

mind-sets rarely achieve balance; but when they do,

describing the dimensions of streets and piazzas,

the effect is that of a bull's-eye hit.

interiors of churches, public buildings, courts, and gardens. Nolli's graphic convention produces an abstraction of physical reality and, like all abstractions, conveys selective information. Both methods of representation, Leonardo da Vinci's and Brunelleschi's, have been developed over the past six centuries. Brunelleschi's constructione legitima made possible the invention of photography, which led to motion pictures, which led to television and now digital image recording. Leonardo's cartography developed into modern mapmaking, with photogrammetry used to record selected points through triangulation. These two methods, fundamentally the only means available for depicting the world, represent two ways of looking at and understanding that world. In the development of a human individual and of our civilization, Brunelleschi's painting represents the earlier view—an understanding of the world based on the evidence of the senses. We believe those things to exist and to be true which we can take in through our senses. Leonardo's map symbolizes our need to go beyond direct experience, to explain the structure of things, the theory behind the phenomena we can see. Both methods of representation made possible design and planning work as we know it today, remote from the actual place of construction. It is not entirely fair to associate the two men with opposing methods of representation. We admire Leonardo's sensuous paintings and sculptures as much as his meticulous engineering studies and scientific records. Likewise, the concept governing Brunelleschi's dome above Santa Maria del Fiore still inspires engineering students. Creative achievement draws from both concept and experience. The chapters that follow suggest that the two methods of representation—map and perspective— introduced a division in professional thinking

l8

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

CHAPTER

TWO

The Search for a Visual Language in Design

How to describe a city? Even for an old inhabitant

palaces, churches, obelisks, columns and other rele-

it is impossible: one can present only a simplified

vant things, rather than spending money for a work

plan, taking a house here, a park there, as symbols

whose principal merit is only that it shows the exact

of the whole.

measurement of all the places of the city." 1 T h e Graham Greene

public had little need for the highly abstract map; for orientation and as a record of memory, people

Giambattista Nolli's map of Rome and the

preferred bird's-eye views, or maps that reminded

earlier map of Imola by Leonardo da Vinci are

them of buildings by showing the facades of impor-

beautiful examples of spatial representations drawn

tant structures.

in graphic terms now commonly used in Western

Certainly Leonardo's Imola map, intended as

society but unusual for their time. Few people

a tool to assess and plan fortifications, was not

could relate the information on the maps to what

made for public consumption. Leonardo prepared

they knew existed in the real world. And even today

it in his capacity as a salaried consultant on military

many people are not entirely comfortable with the

architecture to the "splendid and magnificent"

graphic convention of maps or plan views.

Cesare Borgia—who, according to Machiavelli, the

O f course, maps of cities simplify reality; they

Venetian representative to the duke's court, con-

are intended not to contain all available informa-

quered a new fortress once a month and "arrived in

tion but—like a scientific theory—to contain

one place before it is known he has left another." 1

the least possible information, arranged as un-

In conducting his campaigns, either by subterfuge

ambiguously as possible, to permit a skilled map

or an open show of force, the duke needed to know

reader to extract an adequate image of reality.

the city's entrances and exits and the routes within

Nolli's map was not a commercial success. Only

it, and these are exactly what the map shows.

340 copies sold of the 1,874 printed. Romans of

Its abstraction is a real advantage, not only in main-

the time, like one particular art dealer of the day,

taining the secrecy of information intended for

"would have preferred a map that showed the

military use but also in obliging the reader to recog-

nize that interpretation is an integral part of repre-

alleys. Indeed, throughout history, physical changes

senting reality.

to the form of cities have been justified as a cure for

Few of Leonardo's contemporaries understood

every ailment of urban society. Reasons for placing

the Imola map. The new convention of represent-

the ruler on the map have been articulated inside

ing cities was rarely used. In fact, none of the four

and outside the profession of city planning, but the

surviving sixteenth-century maps preserved in a

placement of the line is the act of a planner because

collection of maps of Rome from antiquity to

the planner understands best the meaning of this

modern times follows Leonardo's convention. 3

graphic convention.

T h e seventeenth-century portion of the collection

Although a designer like Leonardo may have

includes eighteen maps, only two of which are

searched for new conventions in the graphic repre-

presented in ichnographic form. And even among

sentation of cities for practical military reasons,

the eighteenth-century maps, only six of thirteen

designers also experiment for reasons of profes-

(including two by Nolli) follow Leonardo's plan

sional prestige. Those who mastered Leonardo's

view. But the thirty-nine maps produced during

graphic convention achieved greater standing

the nineteenth century all follow his ichnographic

vis-a-vis those in power. A proposed design

convention, and only three show Rome in the older

no longer had to be visualized on the site. Instead,

picture-map tradition. Not until the second half

the designers could come to court and spread out

of the eighteenth century had the new convention

a plan. In doing so, they gained access to power and

taken hold among professionals concerned with

became the equals of the courtiers, who depended

the form of cities.

on them to interpret what was to become reality.

N o one except G o d could see a city from above; a plan drawn on flat material does not correspond

At the same time, as designers' access to power increased, the new graphic convention opened up

to human experience in the way a "prospect" does.

the possibility of working on large-scale projects,

The idea of seeing a city in the mind's eye from

which previously would have been possible only

above was born of the Enlightenment and its fasci-

with piecemeal design. But power and the potential

nation with rational thinking and with abstractions

to work on large-scale projects came at a price:

or generalizations.

gradually, conceptual representation removed the

Through the power of abstraction, urban plan-

designer from the reality of the site—not only from

ning became possible. A map of a town could be

the physical, or ecological, reality, but also from

made, taken to an office (sometimes in another

political, economic, and socio-psychological reality.

city), spread on a table or hung on a wall, and

The examples that follow have been selected

looked at. A professional looking at such a map

from an extensive history of city design. I have

could imagine a city as a system. Even if it seems

selected one city design per century to show the

to a pedestrian to have no clear order, layers of

gradual introduction of conceptual representations,

order are readily visible in a city drawn in plan and

from the invention of Leonardo's map of Imola

viewed from a few feet away. Cities generally have

in 1502 to the end of the nineteenth century, when

centers, boundaries, and edges. Streets connect

a reaction to the conceptual representation of cities

places; major streets run from squares to gates and

set in. The places and the professionals searching

bridges. Frequently there is a hierarchy of squares,

for ways to perfect conceptual representations are

as there is a hierarchy of quarters and the activities

well known and require only brief introductions.

associated with them. If urban structure becomes obvious on a map, intervention in it might be equally obvious. With a ruler, one could mark a straight avenue through the ancient congestion of

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

LONDON,

1666

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, in his book on London,

had existed before. Wren connected St. Paul's with the Tower of London in a straight line; the road

explains how the conceptual planning method

that had linked them before had curved in several

might have been applied to that city.3 In 1666 the

places. Other intersections shaped as stars or

Great Fire destroyed the entire center of London.

squares had only graphic significance. New build-

It broke out late in the evening of September 1,

ings would have to give them meaning over time.

burned fast, and stopped on September 6, only to

For example, Wren moved the parish churches

break out again. Historians say it smoldered for

from their existing locations to intersections and

months. On September 10 the king received Chris-

alongside important roads. Wren also rotated

topher Wren, who came with a plan to rebuild the

St. Paul's Cathedral to make the building respond

city. Immediately after the fire, according to his

to the axes of the new streets. Wren's drawing is

son, Wren prepared a survey of the city. But when

nothing more than a conceptual diagram; major

his design is compared with Wenceslas Hollar's

modification would have been required to make it

"Exact Surveigh of the City of London," commis-

a design. T h e drawing's details do not correspond

sioned in December 1666, three months after the

to the actual ruins, the Thames River, or the Tower

fire, and published in 1667, the comparison reveals

of London.

that Wren's survey was probably traced from an ear-

A letter signed by Will Morris, the king's secre-

lier inaccurate map brought up-to-date by a hurried

tary, went out to the Lord Mayor of London the

walk through the smoldering ruins,5 an improvisa-

day of Wren's visit, asking the Lord Mayor "to

tion similar to what a modern-day professional

inhibit and straightly forbid all persons, whatsoever

might do. The designer quickly records an image

that they presume not to build any dwelling houses

mentally and on paper in order to work with it.

until further order," because "his Majesty had be-

Compare Wren's map with the hatched area on

fore him certain models and drafts for re-edifying

Hollar's survey, and note how carefully Wren de-

the city with more decency and convenience than

picted the edge of the fire-damaged areas.

formerly." 6

Wren was only thirty-four years old but had

Wren's design responded to the prevailing view

distinguished himself as a mathematician and held

that epidemics like the plague were caused by bad

a professorship in astronomy at Oxford. Architec-

air, which became stagnant in narrow, congested

ture was new to him; he had taken it up only four

streets with open sewers. T h e same narrow streets

years before the fire. His interest in the construc-

were correctly blamed for spreading the fire, which

tion of buildings and towns had led him to Paris,

had jumped from one roof to the next. T h e alleys

where he spent the year 1665—the year of the

had been too narrow to serve as firebreaks between

plague, a good year to be away from London. The

houses made primarily of wood. Moreover, build-

geometric clarity of the map Wren presented to

ings had been too high for the roofs to be reached

Charles II reminded the king, who had lived in

by ladders.

Paris himself for many years, that London could be

Wren's recommendations for rebuilding London

rebuilt according to the latest French planning

went beyond physical improvements for health and

methods.

safety. His plan was influenced by a growing litera-

Two monuments stand out in Wren's proposal:

ture on ideal cities, with clear geometric patterns,

St. Paul's and the Stock Exchange. The Guild Hall

applied first to the construction of fortified new

remained in its original place. All three structures

settlements in Northern Italy and later to the plan-

are linked by straight roads where none had been.

ning of settlements in the New World and the

From the Stock Exchange, a road leads directly to

resettling of religious refugees in the Protestant

London Bridge, again where no such connection

or Reformed countries in north central Europe. 7

THE

SEARCH

FOR

A

VISUAL

LANGUAGE

23

l i i i

Christopher Wren's map for the rebuilding of London, 1666 (fop); and Wenceslas Hollar's survey of London, 1667; redrawn to the same scale. Hatched areas indicate the extent of destruction after the 1666 fi re: (a) St. Paul's, (b) Tower of London, (c) Guild Hall, (d) Roya Exchange.

2 4

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

IN

C I T Y

D E S I G N

In the wake of the Thirty Years' War, the lords,

plan. Rather, attention should go to rebuilding:

bishops, and kings of central Europe rivaled each

no wooden buildings; comparatively low buildings

other in renovating the fortifications around their

on narrow streets where light and air were scarce;

cities. At the same time, contradictorily, they en-

taller buildings along wider streets. Fleet Street,

gaged military engineers to design new subdivisions

Cheapskate, Cornell, and some other streets should

outside the remodeled fortifications. The geometric

be made much wider. The precise width was to be

order of the new towns outside the walls stands out

published later after consultation with the Lord

clearly on city maps of the period. 8

Mayor and aldermen. Lanes and alleys were pro-

Charles II saw that the Great Fire gave him the opportunity to introduce the same new geometry

scribed unless absolutely necessary. To give access to water in the event of future fires, a broad embank-

in London. During the days that followed Wren's

ment along the river was created, free of buildings

visit, the king received proposals from John Evelyn,

along the riverbank. In the rebuilding of London,

Captain Valentine Knight, and Robert Hooke.

practical reasoning prevailed. Decisions about the

Evelyn produced three versions of his design, all

city's future form were made locally, with an eye to

grid patterns with diagonals. One of them bears

the problems at hand, and not by the monarch

a curious resemblance to the later L'Enfant plan for

who lived outside the city.

Washington. Hooke, like Wren a mathematician,

Parliament voted on new controls for rebuilding

prepared a gridiron plan. 9 None of the plans was

London on February 8, 1667. T h e legislation had

executed. Each was considered for only a few days

been prepared in a remarkably short time by a

in late September 1666. The rejection of the Sep-

committee that included Wren and Hooke. One

tember plans signifies the power of the City of

of their first tasks had been to commission a new,

London—a city that, in contrast to capitals of the

accurate survey of London and the 1667 map, to

Continent, desired to be self-governing, indepen-

plan the widening of streets in detail. The commis-

dent of the Crown.

sioning of an accurate survey followed by the draw-

Although all buildings had burned to the

ing of an exact map became the prerequisite of

ground, citizens could stand on their property and

town planning. Without the map image, it would

point to where their houses had been and where the

have been impossible to evaluate projects prior to

neighbors' property met theirs. If Wren's plan was

constructing roads and city blocks.

to be carried out, the city's land would have to be assembled and somehow subdivided again in pro-

Almost two hundred years later in Paris, Baron Haussmann wrote in his memoirs: "Before con-

portions based on ownership before the fire, with

cerning myself with the piercing of the new public

land for roads and public buildings subtracted.

ways, whose networks constitute the most singular

Such an enterprise would have required govern-

part of the transformation of our great city, should

ment expropriation of the land and a large bank

I not in effect, speak of the initial study for this

to handle finances. With his government impover-

long and laborious work, and of the instruments

ished from the plague, the king needed no re-

which have served me to undertake this project in

minder of the impossibility of rebuilding London

its entirety and its details, to determine, on the

according to geometric schemes "drawn up by

spot, the line of each avenue, boulevard, or street,

clever men in a few days' time." 1 0

to be opened up, and to oversee the faithful execu-

T h e reminder came from representatives of

tion of the whole." 1 1

the city—the Lord Mayor, startled by the letter he

In Paris Haussmann's surveyors climbed high

received from the Crown the day after Wren's map

scaffolds or great wooden masts that Haussmann

was shown to the king, convinced the monarch

described in his journals as "higher than the houses,

how impractical it would be to carry out an ideal

from where they could measure according to the

THE

SEARCH

FOR

A VISUAL

LANGUAGE

25

method of triangulacion by the means of the most

BARCELONA,1776

perfect precision instruments. Angles were formed

In 1 7 7 6 , at a point midway between Wren's plan for

by the sides of each of the triangles determined on

rebuilding London and Haussmann's remodeling of

the spot by the extension of the central shafts of

Paris, the military engineer Juan Martin Carmeno

these temporary constructions." 11 To a surveyor

started work on a new street through the middle

holding on to the top, the sight lines from mast

of Barcelona. Carmeno had become known in

to mast "gave a real existence to the plan."

Catalonia for the planning of Barceloneta, a suburb

Haussmann wrote his journal entries before balloons equipped with cameras produced aerial

for workers near the port of Barcelona. The Ramblas ("riverbed" in Arabic) had been

images of cities. In the absence of such technology,

the site of a small creek, the Cagallel, that ran as an

the masts were an effective tool, permitting survey-

open sewer along the western edge of the Gothic

ors to "draw" an imaginary design above the roofs

quarter. In the thirteenth century a city wall had

of the city. It is not known whether Haussmann

been constructed along the curving creek. The wall,

himself climbed into the skies to compare his plan

made obsolete when a new wall was built further

against reality.

west, was taken down in 1779. Carmeno, guided by

One cannot help wondering if a person—

a survey, laid out a novel type of street, an urban

whether the prefect himself or any "geometer"—

bypass, a divided roadway with a wide median,

standing atop one of the masts might have imag-

connecting the port with a town gate, approxi-

ined the run of a proposed street and the connec-

mately where the Plaza de Cataluña (Plaça de Cata-

tion such a street would make between known

lunya on the map) is today. From there, highways

places. Might that same person not also have imag-

branched out north, west, and east. T h e new right-

ined the fate of the people who lived under the

of-way was marked by two straight parallel lines,

densely cluttered roofs in that same line of sight?

100 feet apart, a broad strip of road in a city where

By the end of Haussmann's tenure, the number of

streets are rarely more than 30 feet wide. T h e east-

displaced Parisians squatting outside the city walls

ern edge of the right-of-way was drawn with some

north and northeast of Paris had increased to

reference to the alignment of the old wall, but

140,000.13

without its curvature.

Although for Haussmann the new straight

On a map drawn in 1807, thirty years into the

streets meant "disemboweling the old Paris"—

existence of the new street, some property owners

the quarters of riots and barricades—because they

have taken advantage of the new right-of-way in

"did not lend themselves to the habitual tactic of

building structures up to the new frontage line.

local insurrection," history repeated itself. The

Carmeno's plan called for the razing of properties

displaced citizens marched back into the city to

near the port, drawn by the author of the 1807 map

take the Hotel de Ville on March 18, 1871. For the

in the same graphic convention (a dotted line) as

fourth time since 1789, revolutionaries claimed

the former placement of the city wall. Other, more

the city, this time for the short-lived Commune

substantial residences on the western side of the

of Paris.

Ramblas were left standing, although they projected into the new street. For the design of the straight street, and as a legal instrument for adjustments to individual properties, a precise map was necessary. An earlier map, drawn in 1697, which followed the graphic convention of representing structures by their facades instead of by roof or ground plans, would

26

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Ramblas, Barcelona,as it appears o n maps in history (from left): 1697, prior to construction; 1807, thirty years into the existence of the street; and 1987, in its current form.

T H E

S E A R C H

F O R

A

V I S U A L

L A N G U A G E

27

confuse anyone wanting to establish dimensions. More misleading would have been the incorrect angles of buildings and streets. Even a surveyor who had learned to use a magnetic compass might not have understood that frequent, precise readings were necessary to determine accurate bearing angles of buildings and streets. But an accurate map made possible detailed planning away from the site; the plan, moreover, could be presented to the military governor for approval. Barcelona in 1 7 7 6 was an occupied city. The

Above: Ramblas, Barcelona.

straight line of the road that made the movement

Opposite: Joan Mirò, 1925, Lady Strolling on the Ramblas in Barcelona,

of goods more efficient also carried a distinct mes-

New Orleans Museum of Art; bequest of Victor K. Kiam.

sage of power: "You cannot fire a cannon around a corner, or send cavalry charging through winding alleys. T h e Barrio Gotico was the natural home of the urban guerrilla—the Ramblas implied the supremacy of the army." 1 4 But whatever its message, the Ramblas was a vast improvement over the old riverside walk, "thronged with people, choked with dust in the summer, and mud in the winter.'" 5 Carmenos Ramblas is one of those rare planning projects that achieves a balance between concept and experience. The abstract line was modified by the elements already in place. Because of this balance, urban designers still borrow Carmeno's concept. This street, a designer might exclaim of a proposal far from Barcelona, will look like the Ramblas. And the proposed street might have a paved median strip for pedestrians. But it might not be located near a high-density medieval quarter where even to this day people stroll. T h e proposed street may lack any number of design elements that characterize the Ramblas, such as the slightly changing width of pavement, a reminder of the former riverbed. Generally, the median measures from 42 feet, 14 inches, to 46 feet, 18 inches, widening only at the beginning and end. T h e plane trees are generally 18 feet apart, sometimes 36 feet.' 6 T h e straight plantation grows well in the wellcomposted alignment of the former sewer. And the proposed street might not share a number of other important elements of the Ramblas, such as vendors selling birdseed, flowers, and

28

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

THE

SEARCH

FOR

A VISUAL

LANGUAGE

magazines—the only goods that can be sold there—and waiters rushing through the traffic lane to deliver drinks to customers in the median strip (and, when I first saw the street, a Civil War veteran keeping the chairs in line and renting them out for a peseta to people who wanted to rest and watch the crowd stream by). Another memorable experience is to see the Ramblas framed by the buildings lining a narrow cross street. On a spring day, in such a narrow frame of view, the light reflecting in the leaves of the trees tints the air green. Such sights are part of the Ramblas experience. Joan Miro, in a 1925 painting, conveys another facet of this experience: the curvature of this relatively straight street.

tîuc.in

BARCELONA,

1859

By the middle of the nineteenth century Barcelona had been freed of the much-hated outer walls built under Bourbon occupation. In 1855 Ildefonso Cerda, a civil engineer, had been commissioned to prepare an accurate topographic survey of Barcelona and its surroundings. Whereas the city's popu-

Ildefonso Cerda, Barcelona and environs, 1855,detall redrawn.

lation in the eighteenth century was 64,000, by the 1850s it had grown to over 150,000. As a result, the density of Barcelona, at 315 inhabitants per acre (855 per ha), was one of the highest in Europe. (In Paris, density averaged 166 people per acre [400 per ha], and only in the third and fourth arrondissements did density approach that of Barcelona.) 17 T h e average life expectancy for a man ranged from 38.3 years among the wealthier classes to 19.7 years among the poorer laboring classes. T h e city was frequently ravaged by cholera epidemics. In the view of the public, Barcelona simply had to expand to accommodate the large influx of rural inhabitants seeking employment in the city. Cerda, who had completed his studies in 1849 in Madrid, belonged to the generation of European planners born after the French Revolution who had grown up amid the great economic and social changes of the Industrial Revolution. He welcomed the commission to prepare an accurate topographic survey as a necessary prerequisite for the much

3 0

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Even before construction o f the Ensanche had FLAU BARCELONA

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officially started, on October 4, i860, Cerda's plan was criticized by the local architectural community for its monotony, its lack of human variety. 2 ' In his book, Cerda reflected on this criticism and clarified his thinking regarding the intent shown in the competition plan. His plan, the now famous pattern o f blocks with chamfered corners framing Barcelona to the north, west, and northeast, enclosed the old city. As an abstract pattern, it has visual appeal. Its 550 blocks cover 9 square kilometers, without reference to the gentle slope o f the land toward the sea. In its modularity, the plan could have been expended wherever topography permitted such regularity. W h a t we do not see on the plan, or experience today walking through the Ensanche, is a city shaped by social concerns. Cerda's book is clear: the smallest unit o f Cerda's structure is the city

Ensanche d e Barcelona, 1866. Source: Barcelona Public Works Department.

block, 113.3 meters (330 feet) square, with the famous 45-degree cut at the corners, resulting in four street facades, each 86 meters long, and four shorter facades facing squares at intersections. Typical streets are 19.80 meters (60 feet) wide, and the squares at intersections have 48-meter (150foot) sides. O n l y one-third, approximately 5,000 square meters, o f each block was to be used for buildings, constructed in rows two floors high above a basement. T h e rows would occupy two sides o f each block; the other two would be open to gardens. A glance at Cerda's competition map confirms his intention. T h e pattern he drew corresponds to this description. If built as planned, Cerda's extension would have resembled a garden city. H e intended that 25 blocks, five by five, should form a neighborhood, with its own school and church; 100 blocks, ten by ten, should form a district, with an entire block in each district set aside for a market and a park. In the northern section of Barcelona, six districts are visible in Cerda's plan. In the section o f the Ensanche just above the center o f the old city, on both sides o f the Paseo de Gracia, where construction started in i860, the pattern o f neighborhoods and districts is less clear.

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As a concrete image of city development, Cerda's

Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona.

proposal exercised only limited control over threedimensional elements. An official map published in 1866 shows no trace of Cerda's two-sided block development with row housing. Instead, the height limit was set at 57 feet, or five floors; in 1891 the limit was increased to 65 feet, allowing for rows of seven-story buildings around the perimeter of each block. 24 The density increased from Cerda's original proposal of 150,000 square feet of floor space per block to 7 1 0 , 0 0 0 . In the eyes of the critics, the higher density led to disease and social problems. " T h e Middle Ages never escaped the common man." According to an 1888 medical survey made by a Doctor Faria, typhoid, scrofula, anemia, and tuberculosis were common in what should have been the "handsomest and healthiest of cities." Toilets drained into open pits, contaminating the air and water.

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That same year another critic of the Ensanche

By the end of the nineteenth century, planners had

wrote: "With two story rowhouses and a basement

grown accustomed to Leonardo da Vinci's conven-

enclosed by gardens set out in pleasant and smiling

tion of the conceptual city map and had used it to

perspective, built on only two sides of each block,

rationalize the geometry of urban form. The rubric

meant for one family at a time, today they have be-

of rational planning, which assumed the existence

come veritable slums, in which the Barcelona fami-

of political control, included a concern that public

lies are imprisoned. T h e forces of speculation un-

and private places in cities be healthful for resi-

leashed without control." 25 Cerda's plan was unten-

dents, safe from fires, and efficient to move around

able because it implied political conditions capable

in for inhabitants as well as the military. The ele-

of controlling the speculation encouraged by the

ments of rational planning, moreover, could be

regular land division. 26

quantified and evaluated: straight was better than

Cerda's proposal did not exercise much control over private property; however, with regard to the publicly owned spaces, his plan had longevity. The

curved and wide better than narrow for all matters of health, comfort, safety, and efficiency. In Barcelona, the process of mapping a rational

layout of streets, blocks, and broad avenues was

plan invited idiosyncrasies: with his straightedge,

carefully studied with regard to all their dimen-

Cerda created the "Calle Diagonal" as well as the

sions.

Square of the Glory of Catalonia where two diago-

Cerda proposed that one hundred trees should be planted in each block. Regularly spaced plane

nal streets cross the Gran Via. Despite the important-sounding name, the place shaped by the cross-

trees still line many streets of the Ensanche. Walk-

ing of major roads had no geographic, symbolic, or

ing on the 30-foot-wide sidewalks under these trees,

other meaning prior to its creation, 27 and for that

which are planted every 24 feet, is a very pleasant

matter the square has not become a center of Barce-

experience. The pattern of short blocks shaded by

lona corresponding to its geographic location in the

trees, alternating with squares open to the sky, in-

grid and its accessibility. That situation may

troduces a rhythm to the walk. The rhythm is inter-

change, however, for finally, at the end of the twen-

rupted when the pedestrian must cross wide streets

tieth century, a performing arts complex is emerg-

or diagonal streets, but since these also appear at

ing there.

regular intervals, the rhythm is reestablished. Contrary to Cerda's early critics, such a walk is

The process of designing a town in plan does not in itself inform decisions regarding those di-

rarely boring or monotonous. Some portions of the

mensions and proportions that make the experience

walk present real treats, like a stroll on Antonio

of urban form worthwhile. At the end of the nine-

Gaudi's tiled sidewalk along the Paseo de Gracia or

teenth century, in response to rapid urbanization,

in the middle of the right-of-way on the Ramblas

the authors of books on city form stressed artistic

de Catalonia, one block west. These urban spaces

principles, and in doing so started a search for rep-

afford pedestrians a sense of mastery, leaving them

resentations that expressed the experience of urban

surprisingly unaffected by the onslaught of car

geometry. For the English-reading audience,

traffic. •

Raymond Unwin addressed the art of city design, using material from the German planner Joseph Stiibben. 28 Both were preceded by Cerda's contemporary, the Austrian Camillo Sitte.

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VIENNA,

The most innovative element of Sitte's work

1870

Sitte wrote his Städtebau, a book about artistic

was his insistence that urban places respond to the

considerations in urban design, when the vast

inhabitants' psychic state, an idea that can only

complex of public monuments and private apart-

be understood as an offspring of the turn-of-the-

ment buildings in Vienna known as the Ringstrasse

century fascination with the work of Sigmund

was nearing completion.

19

Sitte's ideas of urban life

and form were opposed to those of his professional

Freud and a growing interest in the workings of the human mind. 31

rivals, who had captured the imagination of the

Vienna, in the mid-nineteenth century, had

liberal government of Vienna with conceptual

burst its seams. The old city, Roman at the core,

images of urban form shaped according to rational

with medieval extensions, was still surrounded by

thinking. Camillo Sitte was a promoter of the

the massive defense works that had withstood the

Arts and Crafts movement. He had studied at the

onslaught of the Turks. But already more of Vienna

Vienna Polytechnic and founded the state profes-

was outside the fortifications and beyond the exten-

sional school for arts and crafts in 1875 in Salzburg

sive glacis than within. The new liberal government

and later a second school in Vienna.

made plans to raze the old fortifications. In 1848

Carl Schorske has written that Sitte "won his

the city and its institutions, including the court of

place in the Pantheon of communitarian theorists

the emperor, appeared in danger not from invaders,

where he was revered by other reformers, such as

but from revolutionaries.

Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs."

30

Sitte's contri-

Sitte intended to weave the streets and city

bution is important to our discussion of represen-

blocks of the old inner core with the more regular

tation and the influence of representational method

pattern of the suburbs into a continuous fabric.

on the design of cities. His graphic methods com-

Seemingly by accident, urban spaces would have

bined concept and experience. He produced

resulted "in nature," shaped by a complicated

comparative map studies of well-dimensioned

geometry of street grids. In front of great buildings

urban places and eye-level drawings mainly of cities

like the new Reichstag, the Austro-Hungarian

in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, and Belgium.

Parliament, for example, Sitte proposed to build

He used graphic representations to exemplify

supplementary structures to frame and contain

physical enclosure and spatial definition.

squares as islands of human community. Instead,

If dimensions are important in the art of city

in the official plan the Prachtbauten (splendid struc-

design, then measured drawings are an essential

tures) dominated these squares. The vast urban

record of places worth remembering. Sitte failed to

spaces that resulted were too large for the tradi-

indicate the scale of his drawings, and thus they

tional uses of urban space—for trade, assembly,

convey only the relative spatial relationship of

celebration, and demonstration. Moreover, they

enclosure to openness. But Sitte's insistence on a

were not connected to the streets that led toward

three-dimensional survey of city form was new.

them. They were voids.

He implied that the design of cities should be the

A square, in Sitte's view, was not merely a piece

work of professionals trained to imagine urban

of unbuilt land, but a space enclosed by walls, like

form three-dimensionally. Because of Sitte's writ-

an outdoor room, serving as a theater of common

ings, a change took place: military engineers

life. "No one thought of that," he complained.32' In

responsible for the design of fortified cities had

his view, the members of the City Expansion Com-

turned over to engineers the task of laying out

mittee had lost their senses. "The rage for open

boulevards when city walls came down; after Sitte

space," he proclaimed, would produce a new urban

published his Städtebau, however, the physical

neurosis of Platzscheue, or agoraphobia, the fear of

shape of cities became the responsibility of

crossing, and of being dwarfed by, space and being

architects.

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impotent in the face of the vehicles to which it has been consigned. 3 3 In his book Sitte had presented measurements and images of well-proportioned town squares to open the public's eyes to urban qualities too important to sacrifice. T h e psychological well-being of citizens, he argued, is as important as improvements in mobility and hygiene. H a d Sitte's work been understood as an attempt to design for the psychic state of urban people, his critics might have seen its progressive aspects. But Sitte did not know how to express his concern in a form that could appeal to those interested in the new field of psychology. As a result, his method looked to his contemporaries like historicizing; and for that matter,

36

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Vienna, 1891 (top), w i t h detail of Sitte's proposal redrawn.

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3 7

designers of cities today face similar struggles. The

Edouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier had started work

irony in their work is that they frequently look

on a manuscript entitled "La Construction de

backward in history in order to go forward. Sitte's

Villes" (The building of cities). It was the product

critics, seeing images of largely medieval or baroque

of an earlier time when Jeanneret was under the

squares and winding roads, interpreted his work as

influence of the French version of Sitte's book,

that of someone who lived in the past, wanting to

translated by Camillo Martin in 1902. Jeanneret

go backward.

never finished his manuscript (it was rediscovered

Thirty-five years after Sitte first published his

by Allan Brooks in 1982), but he had prepared

Städtebau (the first edition, in 1889, sold out within

some of the illustrations, which are particularly fine

a month of publication), this reaction was given

examples of his early work. He had taught drawing

voice: "The winding road is the pack donkey's way.

at the arts college of his hometown, La Chaux-de-

The straight road is man's way," wrote Le Corbusier

Fonds. Some of these drawings suggest the experi-

in his 1924 book Urbanisme (published in English

ence of a walk through Munich, for example. On

as The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning). The

the Neuhausserstrasse, the view is closed (creating

persuasive order of the machine age influenced the

what Sitte would have called a geschlossenes Architek-

form of cities in the twentieth century. In his first

turbild) because a building projects into the line of

chapter Le Corbusier contrasts Sitte's artistic prin-

sight along a straight stretch of road. A pedestrian

ciples—polemically caricatured as the pack donkey's

retracing the same route in the opposite direction,

way—with the new order, man's way. The "new

however, would see a splendid view of the Frauen-

urbanism" calls for rationalism, function, efficiency.

kirche's two towers. During his travels in England, Jeanneret observed similar spatial qualities in Ham-

The winding way is the result of happy-go-lucky

stead Garden City. 35 There it is: "La leçon de l'âne

heedlessness, of looseness, lack of concentration

est à retenir." The lesson of the donkey is to be

and animality. The straight road is a reaction,

retained. In the manuscript, he urges planners to

an action, a positive deed, the result of self-

learn from the donkey how to design roads which

mastery. It is sane and noble.

respect and enhance the landscape and are "never

The city is a center of intense life and effort. A heedless people, or society, or town, in which

tiring to ascend because of the variations in their slope." 36

effort is relaxed and is not concentrated, quickly

In The City of Tomorrow, Le Corbusier shed

becomes dissipated, overcome, and absorbed by

Sitte's influence. But he continued to represent the

a nation or a society that goes to work, in a

city as an "architectural landscape." Throughout his

positive way, and controls itself. It is a way that

life he would develop typologies of buildings that

cities sink to nothing, and that ruling classes

support the topography of a settlement, as in the

are overthrown.

34

design for the Quartier Modernes Fruges proposed in 1925 for Bordeaux-Pessac or in his later studies

When Le Corbusier wrote these words in 1924,

of architectural landscapes for Rio de Janeiro and

continental Europe had just witnessed firsthand

Algiers.37 But Le Corbusier and modern movement

Russia's unparalleled leap from absolutism and a

advocates did not view, nor did they represent, such

maximum agrarian economy to state socialism.

a landscape of buildings as a sequence of images

Outside the Soviet Union, his call for order echoed

but rather as a machine-made system of arteries and

a common cry for a new society built on technol-

organisms that structure the city.

ogy, individualism, and intellectual ideals.

Cities have always been places for the produc-

Le Corbusier's famous donkey polemic has an

tion and exchange of goods and services. In the

interesting history. Under his given name, Charles-

1920s the modernization of production meant

38

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" Q u a r t i e r M o d e r n e s Fruges," B o r d e a u x - P e s s a c , Le C o r b u s i e r , 1926. ® F o n d a t i o n Le C o r b u s i e r , Paris.

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increased mechanization, which had the effect of

stability of individual ownership of land. Land in

separating residence from workshop, production

cities had been available in relatively small parcels,

from consumption. The inhabitants of cities

mainly privately held. New city designs depended

became commuters. Industrial production exposed

on the redistribution of land. 40 Only a few mod-

the followers of the Ajrts and Crafts movement

ernists took issue with the overly conceptual ap-

among city designers (essentially, Sitte's followers)

proach to city design. Erich Mendelsohn, who had

to the cold blast of mechanism. Artists like the

traveled and seen much of the world, including the

modernist sculptor Bernhard Hoetger still wanted

new Russia, wrote in 1928 that world architecture

"the individual room, not the factory made prod-

needed to combine "the finiteness of mechanisms

uct." They wanted "personality, not norm, not

with the infiniteness of life." 41 In the journal Urban

schema, not series, not type."

38

But by 1928 most

modernists had rejected Henry Van de Velde's 1914

Architecture, Ancient and Modern, Bruno Taut discussed the new movement in a column called

thesis that the artist creates individually shaped

"Friihlicht" (Daybreak) and dismissed all concepts,

pieces in favor of the opposing thesis of Hermann

old and new. In the United States, Frank Lloyd

Muthesius, like Van de Velde a member of the

Wright lectured young architects about the overly

German Werkbund. Muthesius had proclaimed

conceptual approach to design: "Do not rationalize

concentration and standardization the aims of

from machinery to life. Forget the architecture of

modern design. If products had to be standardized

the world, go to the building sites." 42

to be produced, then the best had to be made of

The modern movement began anew in Europe

the resulting matter-of-fact style, the "Neue Sach-

when the need to rebuild cities destroyed during

lichkeit." For city form this approach entailed

World War II made possible a far more sweeping

abstraction and precision, spaciousness and the

application of the themes that had been developed

inclusion of nature, a fascination with mathematics

during the 1920s. Broad straight streets were laid

and modules.

out and lined with homogeneous structures, where

The images of new cities were like dreams where

historically buildings had been diverse. In 1944 Ivor

even citizens of the north could enjoy the warmth

de Wolfe reacted on the editorial page of Architec-

of the Mediterranean climate. The occupants of

tural Review with an article called "The Art of

new extensions of cities would "see and feel the

Making Urban Landscapes." He surprised readers

sun," but the old city centers would lose popula-

with a call for pluralism in urban design, an aim

tion, a certain criterion of city failure.39

that requires that the architect know "how to let

The designers of new cities wanted to give all

Bill Brown see what he is going to get." "It isn't that

citizens equal access to the fruits of industrial pro-

he is a fool," he writes; "he is quite capable of imag-

duction, good design for everybody. For example,

ining complications inherent in planning, even of

the Bauhaus town planner Ludwig Hilberseimer

making sacrifices for the greater good of the greater

proposed radically reducing the ground area

number, but he cannot, he feels, be expected to

covered by buildings in favor of green space, so that

do his part without being given an idea, a pretty

each individual could live close to nature. He also

clear idea, of what it is all leading up to. He wants

developed visions of gigantic new cities of tall

a picture of the kind of world the physical planner

buildings. For him they were a way to assert order

will make." 43

and avoid the paralyzing effect of chaos on the indi-

The new campaign started by Wolfe as editor of

vidual. A population living in standardized dwell-

the Review was later called the Townscape Move-

ing units had predictable needs—for furniture, for

ment after the "Townscape Casebook," an editorial

appliances, and soon for automobiles. The new city

Wolfe prepared with the illustrator Gordon Cullen

encouraged consumption but not necessarily the

for the February 1944 issue. They wanted above all

40

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to remind readers of a picturesque tradition of ar-

It should be possible to combine the abstract

ranging objects in the landscape. Cullen and Wolfe

approach to representing cities with one that shows

tried to solicit public support for their campaign:

what might be there in reality, using images to

the public could not possibly like the "new Jeru-

explain the concept as well as the experience of

salem, all open space and white concrete," that was

form, ideally in a nonstatic visual language under-

being proposed by the modernists.

44

Gordon

standable to the people who might live in the place

Cullen, in the introduction to his 1961 book

represented. Such a fusion of opposing methods

Townscape, wrote, "The way the environment is

would be needed for completeness.

put together is potentially one of the most exciting

The polemic waged between authors such as

and widespread pleasure sources. It is no use com-

Le Corbusier or Ivor de Wolfe and the various

plaining of ugliness, without realizing that the

camps of sympathizers, however, indicates that divi-

shoes that pinch are really a pair of ten league

sions run deep. The images of cities shaped either

boots." 45 Cullen argued that design professionals

by concepts or by experiences not only portray

needed to popularize the art of environmental

urban space but also express fundamentally differ-

design. Surely he had a twinkle in his eye when he

ent mind-sets and, possibly, political beliefs. If con-

wrote: "Until such happy day arrives when people

ceptual schemes emphasize geometric order on a

in the streets throw their caps in the air at the sight

large scale, they imply a need for central control—

of a planner (the volume of sardonic laughter is the

political, institutional, and economic—capable of

measure of our deprivation) as they now do for

effecting that order. But images that suggest what

footballers and pop-singers, the main endeavor is

it might be like in a particular place are likely to be

for the environment makers to reach the public

comprehensible to many people, who might in

emotionally." 46

their turn object to centralized control, for reasons

Although Cullen's work was criticized for reasons similar to those behind criticism of Sitte—

that may or may not have to do with a specific design proposal.

the images evoked memories of places from the past—he had an important influence on representa-

The political dimensions of representation remained important in the post-World War II era.

tion in urban design because he developed methods

In Boston in the 1950s the historic center was trans-

for recording what he called the "awareness of

formed by state government-sponsored renewal

space." His technique permits the architect to

and the construction of urban freeways. The archi-

illustrate in graphic form how a person walking

tect and planner Kevin Lynch and the artist Gyorgy

through a city experiences it. •

Kepes, who had started a survey of the visual form of cities, were especially interested in Boston, realizing that the physical structure of the city was about to change. They wanted to persuade those planning the renewal to consult with local residents. According to Lynch, his and Kepes s "first study was too simple to be quite respectable." 47 The team interviewed thirty people about the image of Boston's inner city, repeating the exercise in Jersey City and in Los Angeles, cities they believed either lacked an image because they lacked character or produced an image different from Boston's because the heavy use of automobiles in the latter two cities somehow affected residents' perception of their city.

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Neither researcher had any formal training in the

own new visual language. In the fifteen years fol-

methodology of behavioral research, and there was

lowing Lynch's publication of The Image of the City,

no literature to guide them. Kenneth Boulding's

new notation systems emerged, with one produced

book The Image, which would have given them the

by each designer who searched for a new unified

theoretical foundation for their inquiries, was still

language. In retrospect, all these systems were idio-

being written.48 Lynch believed that the image of a

syncratic. Although graphically elegant and often

city is shared knowledge, public rather than private;

artful, the notations were in code, which had to be

local residents perceive what they experience in

interpreted. Some were similar to musical scores—

similar ways. Lynch never concluded explicitly that

or a language for choreographing movement and

subjective individual knowledge, when it is shared,

the meaning of space.50 For designers who used

becomes objective—such a conclusion belongs to

notation, it became a method to predict the public

the realm of epistemology—but he did conclude

image of any existing or proposed development.

that if a group of people share an image of their

"Plans were fashionably decked out with nodes,

city, if the various images are roughly identical, and

and all the rest. There was no attempt to reach out

if residents build up these images through much

to the actual inhabitants, because that effort would

the same experiences, the value systems of the indi-

waste time and might be upsetting." 51

viduals must be approximately the same.

By the early 1970s, as the search for a new lan-

He asked residents what came to mind about

guage to explain experience led to other fields, espe-

their city; he asked them, moreover, to make a

cially geography and the new field of environmen-

sketch map, to describe imaginary trips, and to rec-

tal psychology,52 Lynch's work became a small part

ognize and locate places in various photographs.

of the much larger study of human cognition.53 For

Residents described distinctive elements of Boston.

example, Stanley Milgrim asked 218 Parisians to

Some of them took the researchers on a walk

draw a map of their city.54 "The first principle is

through the city, describing what they saw and how

that reality and image are imperfectly linked. The

they structured the city in their minds. "At times,

Seine may curve in a great arc through Paris, almost

as we listened to the tapes, and studied the draw-

forming half a circle, but Parisians imagine it as a

ings, we seemed to be moving down the same

much gentler curve, and some think of the river as

imaginary street with them, watching the pavement

a straight line, as it flows through the city." An

rise and turn, the buildings and open spaces appear,

explanation for this distorted perception may be

feeling the same pleasant shock of recognition, or

that a person standing on one of the Seine's em-

being puzzled by the same mental gray hole, where

bankments sees the river as much straighter than

there should have been some piece of the city."

49

Residents of Boston, the research concluded,

it actually is. From some places the Seine indeed appears to run in a straight line.

had a relatively coherent and detailed mental image

In fact, many modern-day Parisians draw a map

of their city—an image that had been created in the

of Paris similar to pre-Renaisssance pictorial maps,

interaction between self and place. That image was

selecting symbols to characterize the city's essence.

essential to people's actual functioning and impor-

It is interesting to note that Parisians show remark-

tant to their emotional well-being. Lynch demon-

able agreement in selecting symbols: the Seine,

strated, moreover, that the mental image could be

Notre Dame, and the Ile de la Cité.

recorded in an image map, a novel type of map using visual language to show experience.

Of the 218 people asked to draw, nearly 200 noted the Seine and the city's boundaries along the

Inspired by Lynch's work on how urban environ-

périphérique. Listed in descending frequency, sym-

ments are remembered, some designers in North

bols that appear on the maps of at least half the

America and in Europe began to search for their

subjects include the Etoile, Arc de Triomphe, Notre

42

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'WltoltiH-

s o s i o n image stuoy: n e i a Analysis or Major Problems, from Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, 1964. © Institute Archives, MIT.

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43

#

Standing

#

Standing

X

Sitting

O

Standing and talking

A

Musicians, Performers

•

Standing and waiting

•

Vendors and Waiters

X

Sitting

Wednesday, 19 July, 1995

Monday, 23 July, 1968

Time:

13.30 P.M.

Time:

12:00 noon

Weather:

Fine, 23° C.

Weather:

Fine, 20° C.

Standing:

340 persons

Standing:

429 persons

Sitting:

389 persons

Sitting:

324 persons

Total:

753 persons

Total:

729 persons

4 4

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IN

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D E S I G N

0

^ 200

0

50

100

400

600 200

goo 300

^ Feet Meters

J a n Gehl, m a p s h o w i n g pedestrian activities a n d n u m b e r of persons

Dame, Eiffel Tower, Bois de Boulogne, Louvre, and

sitting a n d s t a n d i n g o n C o p e n h a g e n ' s Stroget, on sunny days in J u l y

the Place de la Concorde. The list goes on to in-

1968 a n d J u l y 1995.The t i m e of d a y w a s similar in e a c h case, as w a s t h e w e a t h e r . O f t h e 753 p e o p l e r e c o r d e d in 1968,429 w e r e s t a n d i n g (either talking or w a i t i n g ) , a n d 324 w e r e sitting. In 1995,729 persons

clude the Champs Elysée, Luxembourg Gardens, Bois de Vincennes, and the Montparnasse Station

w e r e o b s e r v e d (including musicians, performers, vendors, a n d

and/or tower. Parisians like to say that there is a

waiters, as well as pedestrians); 340 w e r e standing, a n d 389 w e r e

tourist Paris but that the real Paris is something

sitting. J u l y 1968 m a p from Gehl, Life between

quite apart. It appears that the same places visited

1995 m a p c o u r t e s y J a n Gehl.

Buildings, 1987; J u l y

and remembered by tourists provide the Parisians' basic cognitive structure. When asked a question one might logically ask in view of the history of the French people—"Where would you take your last walk in Paris if you were exiled from Paris?"— Parisians gave an answer surprisingly similar to what tourists might say about the last day of their tour: a stroll on the Champs Elysée, along the Left Bank. A large number of Parisians would even join the tourists and climb Montmartre one last time." The work on Parisians' mental maps was part of expanding urban design research in the 1960s and 1970s. Researchers used focused interviews and observations, tools developed in the social sciences, to involve citizens in city design. For example, the Danish architect Jan Gehl observed pedestrians on Copenhagen's main shopping street, Straget, in 1968, five years after this set of old streets in the town center was temporarily closed to cars on an experimental basis. O n a warm summer day, 66,000 people walked down Straget. Gehl recorded pedestrian activities at various intervals during the course of nearly thirty years, analyzing how changes of the physical spaces influenced the use of the spaces. He observed where people gathered and where they passed through quickly. His observations were used in designing permanent, expanded pedestrian networks in other cities. 56 Lynch's experiments with the representation of cities led him away from abstract notation to more conventional pictorial diagrams. In a project called Looking at the Vineyard, graphics convey the character of Martha's Vineyard to a broad audience. They capture the Vineyard experience, 57 and thus they engaged many members of the community in discussion. In the Martha's Vineyard project, the visual

THE

SEARCH

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A VISUAL

LANGUAGE

45

LOW DENSITY, NO D E V E L O P M E N T OR VERY LITTLE. RIGID CONTROL.

THE SALT LANDS

POSSIBLY SOME CLUSTERS OF MODERATE DENSITY, L I T T L E OR NO D E V E L OPMENT E L S E W H E R E . RIGID CONTROL.

THE

LOW-MODERATE DENSITY, S O M E DEVELOPMENT. CAREFULLY MANAGED.

C L E A R T O M O O R OR.: M O D E R A T E D E N S I T Y IN DISTRIBUTED OPENINGS. I N V E N T I V E CONTROLS.

R O A D S V E R Y LIGHT, M O S T L Y IH T H I C K E T . FOOT P A T H S TO POND

NONE ON BEACH, DUNE, M A R S H , POND, GRASS. ONLY VERY SMALL, LOW CLUSTERS EACK IN THICKETS

THE

MODERATE TO HIGH DENSITY, IN DENSE CLUST E R S , SURROUNDED B Y EXTENSIVE OPEN. I N V E N T I V E CONTROLS.

M O D E R A T E TO H I G H DENSITY. CREATIVE C O N T R O L S . EXCHANGE FOR F R A GILE LANDS.

4 6

MEN ONL.Y TEMPORARILY PRESENT. NO C A R S , E N G I N E S E N C O U R A G E B ' R D S , DOMESTIC A N I M A I S , S M A L L BOATS. QUIET ACTION, SWIMMING AMD OTHER W A T E R ORIENTED ACTIVITIES.

LEAVE ALONE. NO EXOTICS.

E A R T H , GRASS, WOOD. E A R T H COLORS.

•SLOPES. NEVER. ON C R E S T S .

P A R K I N G A N D ROADS NOT V I S I B L E F R O M SHORE. NO ROADS RUNNING UP THE S L O P E .

NO T A L L VEGETATION ON C R E S T S . M A K E M O R E OPEN.

NO PAINT OR M E T A L . M A T E R I A L S WHICH B L E N D OR W E A T H E R . NO L A R G E , L I G H T S U R -

BOATS, FISHING. NO C A R S . SOME RESIDENCE.

L O W IN V A L L E Y S . NONE ON HILLS. CLUSTERED. ROOTED.

TRACKS IN G R A S S , NARROW, LOW WITH LANDH I D D E N PARKING, N E V E R ON TOPS.

K E E P OPEN. NO E X O T I C S OR TREES. M O W OR G R A Z E . _

WEATHERED WOOP, STONE. STONE, EARTH FENCES.

RECREATION. GARDENS, PASTURE. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. RESIDENCE.

W O O D SHINGLE ROOFS.

PRIMARILY HOUSING. PRIVATE, SCATTERED.

G R O U P S OF HOUSES REL A T E D TO GROVES OF TREES OR. LAND FORMS. LOW OR STEPPED UP

N A R R O W OR T U N N E L S , WINDING. O P P O R T U N I T Y FOR C A R V I N G SEQUENTIAL OPENINGS.

E D G E S OF PRIVATE CLEARINGS. L O W , T A L L E R . IN VALLEYS.

SITING AND ROAD AND PATH FORM OF CHARACTER, BUILDINGS PARKING WINDING, NARROW,

THE

ACTIVITIES

AND B E A C H . NO PARKINS.

DEVELOPMENT DENSITY, TYPE OF CONTROL MODERATE DENSITY. NORMAL CONTROL AND D E S I G N SKILL. D I S P E R S E D STRUCTURES.

MATERIALS AND DETAILS

SITING AND ROAD AND PATH CHARACTER, FORM OF BUILDINGS PARKING

DEVELOPMENT DENSITY, TYPE OF CONTROL

E D G E S OF C L E A R I N G S OR IN THINNED WOODS. LOW H O U S E S ON TOPS, T A L L E R ON S L O P E S , IN V A L L E Y S .

IN CLUSTERS, NOT SCATTERED. D E N S E P A C K I N G , SOME TALL.

OCCASIONAL, S L E N D E R TOWERS. MOSTLY LOW, D E N S E IN CLUMPS IN FOREST. SCREEN AHY SUBURBAN

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

CONTOUR-FOLLOW IN 6. OCCASIONAL VIEWS AND OPENINGS. ROADS IN V A L L E Y S OR

M A I N ROADS STRAIGHT, OR LONG CURVES, SLIGHTLY DEPRESSED. A V E N U E PLANTING. F E W MINOR R O A D S , L I G H T A N D CURVING.

C L E A R ALL OR ONLY VALLEYS. NATURAL PATCHES. •'DWARF" L A N D S C A P E S .

CLEARING AND PLANTING ONLY PATCHES FOR GARDENS OR RARTIAL VIEWS. NO CLEARING ON H I L L TOPS. FOLLOW L A N D FORM.

KEEP AREA AROUND C L U S T E R S OPEN. PLANT T R E E S ONPF W I T H I N C L U S T E R S OR ALONG ROADS. M O W OR G R A Z E .

S H I F T B A L A N C E TO RECTANGULAR GRID OF M I X T U R E OF CLEARED NARROW, URBAN, AND WOODED. M I N O R STREETS. C L E A R UNDERWFMRI FREQUENT CURVES ON MAJOR ROADS. . S C A T T E R E D DE VE LOP' ^ V M B N T SET BACK, /", S O M E C E N T E R S OH

DESIGN

MATERIALS AND DETAILS

ACTIVITIES

NOT SO CRITICAL. WOOD PREFERRED.

HOUSING AND ITS SERVICES, SCATTERED. GA&DÊNS, PASTURE.

NOT C R I T I C A L , E X C E P T NO F E N C E S OR ONLY L I G H T ONES.

U R B A N SURROUNDED BY A G R I C U L T U R E . A N I M A L S , ACTIVITY.

NOT C R I T I C A L , BUT U S E A CLOSE T E X T U R E OF V I S U A L

HOUSING. URBAN A N D A G R I C U L TURAL USES. C A M P I M S . BF/PFIRINVJ

How to build compatibly with landscape elements. From Lynch,

language allowed local groups to understand the

Sasaki, Dawson and Demay Associates, Looking at the Vineyard.

effect of proposed development and to agree on

©Vineyard Open Land Foundation.

policies to guide it. Lynch's analysis—he also lived on the island—gave him a detailed knowledge of landforms, vegetation, climate, history, the people, and their culture. 58 In 1976, Lynch took stock of the new type of professional representation: "A unified language appropriate to the sensory form [of cities] will be a long time developing, if indeed a unified language is possible. Meanwhile, we must deal with the many different aspects of this issue in diverse and sometimes not entirely compatible ways. Language in some form—whether graphic, verbal, gestural, mathematical, or whatever—is indispensable to thought." 59

THE

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VISUAL

LANGUAGE

47

CHAPTER

THREE

Images in Motion

Painters in Western society have learned to represent the sense of movement by studying the human body. A painter's ultimate goal might be to paint landscapes or still lifes, but the drawing of the nude would be fundamental to any exploration of rhythmic relationships—the organization of shapes, linear movement, solidity, stability, mobility, equilibrium, and expressive character. 1 Urban designers have no equivalent educational tradition, though the work of Gordon Cullen or Edmond Bacon has taught them that movement can be read and understood as a pictorial sequence. Critics of this approach argue that reliance on serial vision has led to overly picturesque designs. That claim is true if eye-level perspectives are the dominant form of imagining a place, but if these are combined with measured drawings such as maps, designers can learn important lessons about scale in city design. A designer who compares, for example, a plan view of a place with a pictorial sequence illustrating a walk through that place has a much better grasp of dimension. The representation of pictorial sequences came late to Western culture. Chinese landscape painters perfected the representation of movement. The art

historian George Rowley has written: "For the painters of landscape scrolls the principles of spatial design are conditioned through the isolation of motifs." For Rowley, motifs are picture elements a viewer can easily grasp in one single focus. The eyes, moving through the intervals between these elements, can overcome the isolation of each motif, tying adjacent motifs together. Thus the viewer is set free to "walk" through the landscape and observe the world in motion: "A scroll painting must be experienced in time like music or literature. Our attention is carried along laterally from right to left, being restricted at any moment to a short passage which can be conveniently perused." 2 The scroll tells a tale that can be interrupted and repeated. The walk through Venice on the pages that follow presents such a scroll, one that reads not from right to left, but from the bottom of the page to the top. At first, this direction seems counterintuitive, especially when the accompanying written text is read top to bottom. But reading images is different from reading text. For the images to have the desired effect of pulling the reader into the space, the pictures themselves must be read from bottom to top. Western art traditionally represents

conditions yet to be realized, the future and things associated with it—that is, hope, expectation, and so forth—in the upper portions of pictures. The present condition or position in space or time is shown in the middle of pictures; the past, what we have left behind, is shown at the bottom. An upward movement of the eyes implies progression; a downward movement, regression.3 In scanning the Venice images, the reader pieces them together and gains the illusion of movement through space. Reading the pictorial sequences quickly is similar to watching a motion picture film. Like a film, the pictorial sequences transport the viewer into the scene.

50

REPRESENTATION

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CITY

DESIGN

• The walk starts on the Calle Lunga de Barnaba, in a typical Venetian alley: a dark, narrow passage about to open into a square.The pedestrian is drawn to the light beyond the passage, in the Campo Santa Barnaba.The pedestrian crosses the campo diagonally. Light reflects on the church facade and the stone pavement. Past a covered well, a bridge in the far corner of the campo gives new direction to the walk.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

51

Beside the bridge is a shop selling mirrors. A large one on display in the w i n d o w reflects the bridge and a young couple coming d o w n the steps.The bridge arches high over the canal, reaching almost to the second story of nearby buildings. Signs announce the name of the bridge: Ponte Santa Barnaba at the Fondamente Rezzonico.At the highest point on the bridge, the pedestrian wants to take bearings.

But here the scroll technique shows its limits.The scroll continues on the obvious path d o w n the steps into Calle de Bateche, but instead the pedestrian wants to look around. A glance to the left reveals the long straight Rio San Barnaba, with t w o more bridges in the distance. A Venetian might not remember the bridges' names but once oriented probably would know that they lead to another neighborhood near the large C a m p o San Marcherita, where an open-air market is held.The view to the right reveals the Grand Canal and perhaps the waterbus stopping at the Campo San Samuele on its way to the Rialto.The scroll, however, reveals none of this information.

52

REPRESENTATION

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CITY

DESIGN

Detail, m a p of Venice (1 inch - 200 feet) Sou-ce Atlante di 'venezio, 1989.

I M A G E S

IN

M O T I O N

53

T h e s e q u e n c e o f pictures leads d o w n t h e steps a n d a l o n g Calle Boteche, a short, n a r r o w street that turns right. (The walk skips a short s e c t i o n o f t h e next alley.)

54

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

The sequence starts again at the corner of Calle Cappeler;the pedestrian turns right and—before seeing the square—senses the proximity of open space from the abundant light. A double row of trees marks a diagonal path across the Campiello del Squelin, where a bookstore sits on the square at the corner with the Calle Foscari.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

Along the Calle Foscari a three-story-high wall on the right hides the garden of the Ca' Foscari; the palace itself faces the Grand Canal. The pedestrian's path parallels the Grand Canal behind the properties that face it.

56

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

The pedestrian sees the light falling on the facade of a building beside the Palazzo Balbo, on the other side of a large bridge with many steps, suggesting a wide span.Ponte Foscari "slides" into full view as the corner building on the left recedes. From the steps of the bridge, a landmark of the Polo district comes into view: the bell tower of the church of the Frari. From the bridge itself, the pedestrian looks d o w n a street that is very wide and straight by Venetian standards. Standing on top of the Ponte Foscari, the pedestrian takes a bearing once more.The view to the right again reveals the Grand Canal, looking closer than it looked from the Ponte Santa Barnaba and much wider as it bends eastward, but none of these sights is shown in the limited view of the Images, which lead ahead d o w n into the Calla Larga Foscari.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

57

Four images suffice to convey the 80-meter length of the Calla Larga Foscari,a distance that has taken up to fourteen images in earlier sections of the walk w h e n streets were narrower and more winding. Only w h e n the pedestrian reaches what appears to be the d e a d e n d of this street does another pedestrian, stepping out of the narrow o p e n i n g to an alley, show h o w the route continues, into the narrow Calle d e la Dona Onesta.

t-

>m

58

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

\

DESIGN

The contrast b e t w e e n the w i d e Calle Foscari and the narrow Calle de la D o n a Onesta is impressive. Half the length of the w i d e Foscari, Calle Onesta nonetheless appears longer. Light falls d o w n into it from above a high garden wall; even more light falls o n t o a bridge, the cast-iron Ponte di D o n a Onesta, that c o m e s into v i e w at the e n d of this narrow space. Steps to it rise suddenly from the alley.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

59

From the bridge, the pedestrian sees a bookstore o n the F o n d a m e n t e del Fornu straight ahead and can read the covers of the books on display. But not for long, for the walk continues with a right turn o n to the F o n d a m e n t e del Fornu, where a row of beautiful buildings faces the Rio de la Frescada.The Grand Canal, visible o n c e again, looks surprisingly distant; it has curved away from the pedestrian's straight p a t h . O n the canal o n e of the palazzi g l i m p s e d from the bridge over the Rio Foscari again c o m e s into view.

6 0

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

I walked along this route many times on the way to and from the Giudecca. Early in my stay, when one narrow alley looked like another, the bridges stood out as spatial elements, giving structure to my movements and expressing a rhythm. I remember the experience of rising at each bridge and gaining a better view for a few moments before "plunging" back to ground level. The squares along the walk defined the beginning and end of movement. Crossing a square gave me a sense both of balance and of anticipation of the next stretch of narrow alleys to be traversed before the next bridge and the next square. The walk in Venice measures 1,060 feet, or approximately 350 meters. It takes four minutes to walk this distance—a very short time considering the many different physical spaces encountered. In Venice, buildings, squares, alleys, canals, and bridges are all crowded together in a very small area. To explore the scale of Venice relative to the scale of other cities, I have overlaid the length of the walk in Venice on maps of other cities. T h e fourteen city maps that follow are all drawn to the same scale, one inch equals 200 feet, which is also the scale of the map accompanying the pictorial sequences. T h e fourteen city maps were selected to represent a wide range of urban scales. Some cities are finely scaled, like Kyoto or Barcelona. Others are large in scale, like Washington, D . C . Some cities have streets following regular grids; in other cities streets follow irregular patterns. The same four-minute walk applied to these fourteen city maps appears to take different amounts of time. In most cities, traveling the distance that is actually equivalent to the walk in Venice appears to take less time. In some of the cities, walking this distance comes close to the time it takes to walk in Venice. For a designer, these comparisons are important. The dimensions and placement of urban elements influence the perception of time.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

61

6 2

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Detail, map of the Berkeley campus (1 Inch - 200 feet). Source:

The distance covered in the walk in Venice equals that

University of California, 1987.

of a walk many Berkeley students take daily from the corner ofTelegraph Avenue and Bancroft to Wheeler Hall (along the dotted line).This walk appears much shorter than the walk in Venice.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

6 3

In San Francisco, the distance covered in the Venice walk is equivalent to that of a walk from the entrance of the St. Francis Hotel, through Union Square, past the Naval Monument, across Stockton Street, and into Maiden Lane to the Circle Gallery, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—really a very short walk.

Detail, m a p of San Francisco's retail district (1 inch = 200 feet). Source: D e p a r t m e n t of City Planning, City of San Francisco, 1983.

6 4

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

65

Also in San Francisco, a walk from the Bank of America

Detail, map of San Francisco's Chinatown (1 inch = 200 feet).

Building along California Street, past Old St. Mary's

Source: Department of City Planning, City of San Francisco, 1983.

Church, with a turn into Grant Avenue to a restaurant at the corner of Commercial Street appears to take a little longer than the previous walk in San Francisco but seems shorter than the walk in Venice.

66

REPRESENTATION

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CITY

DESIGN

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

67

Map of New York City's Times Square (1 inch = 200 feet).

At Times Square in New York, a walk begins at the foot

Source: Department of City Planning, City of New York, 1982,

of the old Times Tower, passes the Army Recruiting Station, stops in the median strip between Broadway and Seventh Avenue for a good look at the square, chances it across Broadway, and proceeds along to the Palace, across from Duffy Square where tickets for same-day performances are sold.This is a quick walk.

68

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

6g

100 _j

200 1 50

7 0

300 I 100

400 1

REPRESENTATION

150

IN

600 I

CITY

200

DESIGN

800 I

1000 1 300

1200 I

Feet n

400

Meters

M a p of Copenhagen's main pedestrian street (1 inch - 200 feet).

In Copenhagen,a pedestrian walks along Straget from

Source:Copenhagen General Planning D e p a r t m e n t ; redrawn, 1989,

Nytorv, past York Passage, then catches sight of the

by Allan Jacobs.

grand old trees at the churchyard reaching into the streets at Helligaands Kirke,and walks to AmagerTorv. The distance is the same as that of the walk in Venice, though it appears a little shorter.

Detail, map of Washington, D.C. (1 inch = 200 feet).

In Washington, D.C., a walk along Pennsylvania Avenue,

Source: Allan Jacobs, 1989.

from the National Archives to the Old Post Office, equals the distance of the walk in Venice but appears much shorter.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

73

In an old neighborhood ofToronto, a walk equal in

Detail, map ofToronto (1 inch - 200 feet). Source: Department of

distance to the Venice walk takes a pedestrian along

Public Works,City ofToronto, 1990.

alleys from Ontario and Gerrard streets to the end of Milan Lane. Because there is much to see on this route along garages and yards in the rear of properties, this walk appears to take just as long as the Venice walk.

74

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Vi ^

?

1 •»^Vü f^t

01 0

100 i

200

1

50

300 i

100

400 1

600 i

150

800 i

200

1000 1

1200 i

300

IMAGES

Feetn

400

IN

MOTION

75

Meters

M

i

m

i

KraifiW

wmm 1 W S i S35 0

200

100 50

7 6

300

400 I

100

REPRESENTATION

800 I

600 200

150

IN

CITY

DESIGN

1000 300 _ r

Feet

1200 400

Meters

A walkthrough the old city of Kyoto, which was laid out 1,200 years ago, starts on Aya-no Koji Street, turns into one of the major old north-south streets called West Side ofTohin, passes the Aya Wishi Children's Playground,turns into Bukko-ji Street, and almost reaches the entrance to the neighborhood shrine of the Suga Minister.This walk, a distance of two large cho's, appears a little longer than the walk in Venice.

Detail, m a p of Kyoto (1 inch = 200 feet). Source: Kyoto City Planning D e p a r t m e n t , 1985.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

77

To m y great surprise, t h e walk in Venice equals a stroll t h r o u g h t h e Piazza Navona in Rome. A l t h o u g h I claim t o k n o w it well, I had u n d e r e s t i m a t e d its size, a s s u m i n g t h a t it t o o k o n l y half t h e t i m e o f t h e Venice walk; but, in fact, crossing t h e plaza takes f o u r minutes.

Detail, m a p of t h e historic quarter, Rome (1 inch = 200 feet). Sou ree: City o f Rome, Map of t h e Centro Storico, 1985; redrawn by Allan Jacobs.

78

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

»

m u «

•

¡ss^a 200

100 50

300 1

100

400

600 [ 150

800 200

1000 300

IMAGES

Feet

1200

— 1 _

n

400

IN

MOTION

79

Meters

Detail, map of London (1 inch - 200 feet). Source: London

My surprise was even greater when the distance of

Ordnance Survey.

the Venice walk was plotted out on a map of Trafalgar Square in London, from a point nearthe Arch of the Admiralty, past Canada House and the Venturi and Brown extension to the National Gallery, to St. Martin in the Fields.This stroll seems to cover a greater distance than the previous walks.

80

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

^HIS

s 0 1

100 I

50

200 1

_r

300 I 100

400 1—

800

600 150

200

300 _

n

400 n

r

IMAGES

Feet

1200 —I

1000

IN

MOTION

8l

Meters I

8 2

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

Map of the Marais, Paris (1 inch - 200 feet). Source: Prefecture de

In Paris a walk starts at the beautiful symmetrically

Paris, Edition 1969.

framed Place du Marché St. Catherine, off Rue Saint Antoine, turns right on Rue de Jarente, left on Rue Turenne,and right again to enter the Place des Vosges, where a statue of Louis XIII occupies the center of the square.The Paris walk appears to take longer than the walk in Venice.

IMAGES

IN

MOTION

83

A walk in Barcelona equal in distance to the Venice walk starts at the Plaza Reial and continues along the famous Ramblas, barely reaching the Sant Joseph Market, not quite halfway to the north end of the Ramblas, which is at the Plaza de Cataluña.The Rambias is longer than I had remembered. I would have thought that the equivalent of the Venice walk would have reached the Plaza de Cataluña.

Detail, map of Barcelona (1 inch = 200 feet). Source: Corporacio Metropolitana de Barcelona, 1983.

84

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

100 I

200 H 50

300 I 100

400 1—

800

600 I 150

1000

200

— I

300 _

n

400 Meters "1 I

r

IMAGES

Feet

1200

r~

IN

MOTION

85

Map of a gated c o m m u n i t y in the City of Laguna Niguel,

To match the distance of the walk in Venice, a home-

Orange County, California (1 inch = 200 feet).Source:Traced

owner in Orange County,California, might navigate

from a 1981 aerial photograph, Robert J. Lung and Associates.

a little more than halfway around the street that loops through the neighborhoods walk much shorter than expected.

86

REPRESENTATION

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DESIGN

SJ BX I 4 Pl JBII •IHM« F ' V m IUI J Si S S tt«"M *Till rafl .... "il. « li- JÎ"! s:!?f IT. Z ~ •• ni 0

200

100

50

300 100

400 [

600 150

800 200

n

— I

300

IMAGES

Feet

1200

1000

400

IN

MOTION

87

Meters

Map of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California

A shopper at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo

(1 inch - 200 feet). Source: City of Palo Alto, Stanford Shopping

Alto, California, might start at the Nordstrom depart-

Center, 1994.

ment store and not get very far at all. •

88

REPRESENTATION

IN

CITY

DESIGN

100 _j

200 1 50

r

300 I 100

i

400 1

150

I

600 i

200

I

800 1

1000 1 300

1200 I

I

IMAGES

F«*t n 400 Meters

I

IN

MOTION

89

I

Thinking about time's embodiment in the physical world might bewilder most of us. The failure to grasp the elements that make one walk appear longer or shorter than another has astonished some of the most experienced city designers. I do not have answers to explain all variables that alter the perception of time, but I found some interesting hints in the writings of the philosopher William James: 4 "Our heart-beats, our breathing, the pulses of our attention, fragments of words or sentences that pass through our imagination, are what people this dim habitat" that he and others have called the twilight of our general consciousness. All of these elements have to do with rhythm. Even if we try to empty our minds, by sitting still, for example, with eyes closed, "some form of changing process remains for us to feel and cannot be expelled. Awareness of change is the condition on which our perception of time's flow depends." But there is no reason to believe that sitting still and seeing nothing suffice to arouse the awareness of change. "The change must be of some concrete sort." Pedestrians tell the length of their walks by the rhythmic spacing of recurring elements. The Venice S p a c e - m o t i o n a n d v i e w d i a g r a m s , f r o m D o n a l d A p p i e y a r d , Kevin

walk has frequent and different types of rhythmic

Lynch, a n d J o h n R. Myer, The View from the Road ( C a m b r i d g e : M I T

spacing. Other environments have produced fewer

Press, 1964).

types of spacing, and the visible information engages walkers less frequently. Thirty-nine drawings of unequal spacing were needed to explain the fourminute walk in Venice; far fewer drawings could explain most of the other walks. Successive acts of apperception and recognition influence one's sense of time. T h e walk through Venice necessitates many turns—through two squares, along several narrow alleys, across three bridges, and near a number of waterways. Pedestrians perceive change successively and adjust their knowledge—for example, of bridges—to what they have already learned. But James warns that this observation is too crude. "To our successive feelings, a feeling of succession is added, that would be treated as an additional fact requiring its own special elucidation." A walk through Venice might be followed by a walk

9 0

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

I N

C I T Y

D E S I G N

through Mestre, the nearest town on the mainland. Or, as here, a walk through Venice might be compared to a walk in a place as far away as San Francisco, New York, or Kyoto—a comparison that requires large mental leaps in time and space. Even if these walks were known well, the sights they entail would have to be recalled; the images of Venice, in contrast, are still accessible to the reader in the pages of this book and can be looked at again. A consideration of rhythm in city design is valuable. The dimensions of the physical objects and the setting of these objects in space influence the sense of time. Designers thus have remarkable power to affect the perception of time by arranging objects in space, by setting dimensions, designing textures, selecting color, and manipulating light. Chapter 8 discusses representations of "moving focus" as a tool in conditioning spatial design. At this point, however, I want to look at experiments conducted in the 1960s and early 1970s with moving images that capture the "View from the Road." The construction of urban expressways made it possible to drive through cities at accelerated speeds. From these roadways, sometimes level with but frequently raised above ordinary streets, the motoring public views cities and landscapes, passing them quickly and with few interruptions. Expressways created a new image of the city. Places and their surroundings had to be relearned to the extent that walking through them differed from a drive through them at high speed. In their book The View from the Road, Donald Appleyard, Kevin Lynch, and Richard Myer further developed the graphic notations originally used in Lynch's Image

=

73 Composite Sketch Sequence of Northeast Expressway

I


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136

THE

CITY

IN

THE

LABORATORY

Central Park south through midtown, with a saddle south of the Empire State Building, before height again increases south of Soho toward the southern tip of Manhattan. If adopted, this ordinance would prevent outright a structure like Television City, the "tallest building in the world." But a Manhattan ridge line is only remotely related to New Yorkers' daily movements. Many would admit that such shaping might be more pleasing to those who see Manhattan from the bay, from the East and Hudson Rivers, or from New Jersey.

Opposite: D o w n t o w n " h i l l " s h a p e d by t h e 1974 planning c o n t r o l s (fop) and by the 1985 D o w n t o w n Plan.

Residents value a city form shaped according to natural topography because it allows them to cope with change. People interviewed in San Diego, California, about the physical form of their city, expressed affection for the oceanside setting, the bay, and the canyons that open toward the bay. According to one resident, nostalgic for an earlier cityscape, "The north side is ugly, and the accelerated building in the valley floor is plain tragic. And there are the areas of parked cars waiting to be sold, where once there was greenery and birds and peace and quiet. Imagine hearing spring peepers in the city. We used to!" 15 Planners in San Diego have tried to direct the city's development away from the valleys to protect them as elements of the city's visual structure. Although they have not always succeeded, their work enjoys public support. In his review of literature on the perception of, and response to, anticipated or experienced change, Erwin Zube notes that "a greater obligation will be placed upon those in the planning and design professions to ensure change does not outrun the ability to comprehend and cope with it." 16 I have focused on natural images that influence the aesthetics of a city's structure. Helmut Wohl usefully relates aesthetic vision to a coherent point of view and to trust, "perhaps the deepest criterion for the measure of coherence that a point of view represents. Aesthetic vision provides both an ideal and a standard of that wholeness which a point of view imparts on reality." 17

DOWNTOWN

SAN

FRANCISCO

137

CHAPTER

SIX

Downtown Toronto: Urban Form and Climate

City planners in San Francisco drew on the knowl-

Thomas Jefferson, upon returning from England

edge of a relationship, as old as the experience of

and France in 1800, complained about the con-

living in cities, between urban form and a city's cli-

stantly gray skies of England and noted the "collec-

mate. During the Renaissance, both Leon Battista

tive psyche of the English men who tended to be

Alberti and, later, Andrea Palladio reported the

suicidal due to lack of sunlight in the North."

observation of Tacitus that parts of Rome became

In America, skies are usually blue, he observed, but

hotter during the summer—and less healthy—when

people suffer from high humidity during the sum-

streets were widened during the reign of Emperor

mer months. He designed a checkerboard city plan

1

Nero. Palladio recommended that cities in cool

where black squares represented built-up city blocks

climates have "ample and broad" streets so that

and white squares indicated gardens crossed diago-

these cities would be "much wholesomer, more

nally by roads. He anticipated that cool air from

commodious, and more beautiful." But cities in

the shaded garden squares would cause a natural

hotter climates would be more healthful with nar-

airflow between them and the hotter city blocks. 4

row streets and tall houses to provide shade. Palla-

The health benefits of direct sunlight and air

dio and Alberti were inspired by the writings on

circulation became the focus of research by the

city planning and climate of Vitruvius, who, in

medical profession around the turn of the century.

recommending the laying out of colonial cities at

The findings on the relationship between sunlight

the time of Emperor Augustus, suggested orienting

and bone diseases or tuberculosis, for example,

streets away from the direction of prevailing winds

and on ventilation as a factor in health had a major

as a protection against their violent force. 1 Vitru-

effect on the practice of architecture and urban

vius's writings were studied in Spain's colonial office

planning worldwide. 5 But subsequently, local cli-

and incorporated into the Law of the Indies, pro-

mate conditions have had less influence on the

claimed by King Philip 11 of Spain in 1573 and

form, spacing, and style of buildings. The architect

sometimes applied to city building in the New

Bruno Taut observed correctly in 1937 that his

World. 3

fellow modernists disregarded local differences in

climates: "The modern buildings built up high in

Bioclimatic charts for Toronto, Vancouver, Phoenix, and New Orleans.

the north [of Europe] have the same appearance as

To read the bioclimatic chart for Toronto, note that lines in t h e lower

those built along the Mediterranean Sea."

6

Each decade has brought new building styles; changes in functional and structural requirements have changed building dimensions, but modern cities have rarely been shaped by a concern for cli-

right p o r t i o n indicate t h e range o f average m o n t h l y m a x i m u m a n d m i n i m u m temperatures and humidity.The comfort zone in the center indicates c o m f o r t a b l e t e m p e r a t u r e and h u m i d i t y c o n d i t i o n s for a person dressed in a business suit, taking a leisurely walk in t h e shade. Except for July a n d August and a few days in September, Toronto's temperatures are t o o low for a c o m f o r t a b l e leisurely stroll.

mate. In downtown Toronto, where winters are

D u r i n g most of t h e year, pedestrians in business c l o t h i n g are

cold and summers hot and humid, buildings resem-

c o m f o r t a b l e only in direct sunlight. Lines b e l o w t h e lower e d g e of

ble those of downtown Los Angeles, where winters are mild and summers moderately warm. In arid

t h e c o m f o r t zone indicate h o w m u c h sunlight they need. For example, t o c o m p e n s a t e for midday temperatures of 50°F (10°C) in April, t h e equivalent of 350 watts per square meter of radiation is

Phoenix, Arizona, street dimensions and the spac-

needed. Direct sunlight produces such a m o u n t s w h e n t h e sun rises

ing between tall buildings are similar to those in the

high e n o u g h above t h e horizon, as it does at m i d d a y In April and

Shinjuku district of Tokyo, where summers are also

September in Toronto. On July and August days w h e n m i d d a y

hot but much more humid. In all these cities,

temperatures rise above 77°F (25°C) and the h u m i d i t y measures

urban form has adversely affected the local climate: streets and squares have become windier, hotter, or colder. Although the relationship between a city's form and its climate has been intuitively understood, intuition cannot predict how specific future buildings will affect climatic conditions. No comprehensive mathematical model exists that relates proposed structures to the comfort of pedestrians on sidewalks or in public open spaces—that is, the thermal conditions that affect their physiological well-being. A combination of experimental and computational techniques is necessary to make comfort predictions. Six variables affect thermal comfort outdoors: sunlight, wind, humidity, ambient air temperature, activity level, and clothing. Depending on local climate and weather, a person might prefer to sit or walk in sunlight or in the shadow of buildings, might enjoy a breeze, or might take shelter from the weather in buildings or under arcades. Cities can be built to provide these choices. In 1990 planners in Toronto were searching for a rationale for setting new building height limits and density controls near the city's downtown. The Environmental Simulation Laboratory was commissioned to carry out modeling experiments on the effects of urban form on microclimatic conditions there. 7 The laboratory examined the effects

I40

THE

CITY

IN

THE

LABORATORY

above 55 percent, people in Toronto seek shade and a light breeze. A breeze of 0.5 meters per second, as s h o w n above t h e c o m f o r t zone o n t h e chart, compensates for t h e heat a n d humidity.

TORONTO, ONTARIO 43° 4 0 ' N , 79° 2 4 ' W 105 Year Record 11 m above sealevel

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA 49° 17'N, 123° 0 5 ' W 43 Year Record 14 m ahove sealevel

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Freud, S i g m u n d , 35

an

d social

problems, 34

future reality, models of, 10. See also c o m p u t e r simulations;

Denver, 134

Environmental Simulation Laboratory

Descripto Urbis Romae (Alberti), 13 design, notation systems for, 42 Deutscher W e r k b u n d (German Association o f Craftsmen),

G e h l , Jan, 4 4 , 45 General Theory of Urbanization

(Cerda), 31, 32

Gilson, Kevin, 168

40 disease. See health

glass, mirror, 4

D i s n e y C o m p a n y , 107

G o e t h e , Johann W o l f g a n g von, 159—60,162, 164—65

distance: judgments of, 7 , 9, 61, 90 (see also comparisons

Goldberger, Paul, 107

underWenice);

measurements of, 13

d o c u m e n t a r y quality o f representation, 99, 203. See also objectivity/neutral stance D o w n t o w n C e n t e r (Toronto), 142-43

G o m b r i c h , Erich, 187 Great Fire ( L o n d o n , 1666), 23 green space, 40 G u g g e n h e i m M u s e u m (Wright), 203

Dreiser, T h e o d o r e , 106 D u c o s d u H a u r o n , Louis, 178 D u o m o (Cathedral o f Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence), 3, 4,

Hamstead G a r d e n C i t y (England), 38 Haussmann, Georges Eugene, 2 5 - 2 6 health: and urban planning, 23, 25, 33, 139

18

Hilberseimer, L u d w i g (Bauhaus t o w n planner), 40 Dykstra, John, 93, 2 i o n . i o

H i t c h c o c k , Alfred: Rope, 93, 2 i o n . i 3 Hoetger, Bernhard, 40

Eliot, T . S., 101

Hollar, Wenceslas, 23, 2 4

Enlightenment, and abstraction, 22

H o o k e , Robert, 25

Ensanche (urban extension plan, Barcelona), 3 0 - 3 1 , 3 0 - 3 4 environment, and visual quality o f cities, 9 2 - 9 3 , 94, 2 i o n . i 6

ichnographia, 2 0 7 ^ 1 7 . See also plan view

Environmental Policy A c t (1969), 92, 94, 2 i o n . i 6

Image, T'Äi'(Boulding), 42

Environmental Simulation Laboratory (University o f

image maps, 42, 45

California at Berkeley), xiv, 207n.2; built by Appleyard

Image of the City, The (Lynch), 42, 43, 91

and C r a i k , 9 2 - 9 3 , 2ion.8; cost o f simulations, 96;

Imola (Italy), m a p of, 1 0 , 1 1 , 1 2 , 13, 2 1 - 2 2 , 207n.l3

m o d e l - p h o t o g r a p h y experiment at, 92, 9 3 - 9 4 , 9 5 - 9 7 ,

individual style vs. standardization, 40

96, 2 i o n . 9 ; objectivity of, 2 0 0 - 2 0 1 ; opened to

industrialization, 38, 4 0

engineers, designers, and planners, 94; residentialdensity simulation, 1 8 8 - 8 9 , 1 9 0 - 9 1 , 1 9 2 , 1 9 3 - 9 5 , 1 9 6 , 1 9 7 ; role in policy making, 1 2 8 , 1 3 0 - 3 2 , 1 9 9 - 2 0 0 ; San

224

INDEX

Jacobs, Allan, 21111.5

Marquis Theater (New York), 107

James, William, 90

Marriott Hotel (New York), 106

Jeanneret, Charles-Edouard. See Le Corbusier

Martha's Vineyard, 45, 46, 47

Jefferson, Thomas, 139

Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, 97

Jeffrees, Jerry, 2ion.8

Maxwell, Sir James Clerk, 2i4n.i8

Jencks, Charles, 162

meaning vs. order, 187

Jersey City, 41

Mellander, Karl, 2ion.8 Mendelsohn, Erich, 40

Kamnitzer, Peter, 92

mental images, shared, 42, 45

Kant, Immanuel, 187

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 142

Kemp, Martin, 178, 2 1 4 ^ 1 5

Milgrim, Stanley, 42, 45

Kepes, Gyorgy (artist), 41—42

military forces: and fortified cities, 25, 35; maps/plans used

Knight, Valentine, 25

by, 11, 21-22

Kueller, Richard, 2ion.9

Miller, Alvay J., 2ion.8

Kyoto, 61, 76, 77

Mirò, Joan: Lady Strolling on the Ramblas in Barcelona, 29,

Lady Strolling on the Ramblas in Barcelona (Mirò), 29, 30

mirror glass, 4

Lafayette (California), 200—201

Mission Bay project (San Francisco), 121, 1 2 2 , 1 2 3 - 2 4 ,

30

landmarking, 107 land ownership, 40

2iin.i models: of future reality, 10; of St. Peter's Basilica, 10,

Last Laugh, The (Mumau), 93

207n.i2. See also computer simulations; Environmental

Law of the Indies (Spain), 139

Simulation Laboratory

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), 212n.fi;

modernism, 40

"Construction de Villes, La," 38; Quartier Modernes

motifs, 49

Fruges design, 38, 39; Urbanism, 38

movement/motion, 49—99, 183—85; drives recorded on film,

Leonardo da Vinci: designs of, 187-88; influence of, 19; map of Imola, 10, 1 1 , 1 2 , 13, 21—22, 207n.i3; map of Rome, 13-14; surveying instruments of, 1 1 , 1 3 , 207ml.15—16 life expectancy, in Barcelona, 30 London: 1666, 23, 24, 25—26; modern, 80, 81

90-91, 91-94, 95; drives simulated by computer, 96-97, 97—99; and experience of distance, 61, 90 {see also comparisons underVtmct)-, and frames per second displayed, 183, 184; as pictorial sequence, 49-51, 51-52, 54-60, 54-60; rhythm and, 61, 90-91

Looking at the Vineyard( Lynch), 45, 46, 47, 209^58

Munich, 38

Los Angeles, 4 1 , 1 4 0

Municipal Arts Society of New York, 103, 109,115, 2iin.7

Lucas, George: Star Wars, 184, 2ion.io

Murnau, F.W.: Last Laugh, The, 93

Lumière brothers, 178

Muthesius, Hermann, 40

Lynch, Kevin, 41—42, 204, 207n.3 ; Image of the City, The,

Myer, Richard: View from the Road, The, 90-91, 91-92

42, 43, 91; Looking at the Vineyard, 45, 46, 47, 209^58; View from the Road, The, 90-91, 91-92 Lyric Theater (New York), 107

National Science Foundation, 92-93 neorationalists, 204 neutrality. See objectivity /neutral stance

machine age, 38, 40

New Amsterdam Theater (New York), 107

Maertens, Hans, 172

Newman, Paul, 201

Manetti, Antonio (Italian biographer), 3, 207n.4

New Orleans, 141

Manhattan. See New York City

New York City: Board of Estimates, 107; Columbus Circle,

maps/plans: abstractness of, 21-22; of Barcelona, 26, 27,

203, 204; conventioneers in, 112; Forty-second Street

30—32, 30—33; and designers' prestige, 22; of Imola, i o ,

redevelopment project, 2iin.io; Manhattan, shape of,

1 1 , 1 2 , 1 3 , 21-22, 207n.i3; of London, 23, 24, 25, 2o8n.5;

134, 137; Parks Council, 118; Television City, 118,137,

for military purposes, 11, 21—22; plan view, 10, 10—11,11—

1 7 0 - 7 2 , 1 7 1 - 7 2 ; Upper East Side, 118; West Side

12, 13, 22, 187; of the Ramblas, 26, 27; reality simplified

Highway proposal, 101-2, 103,103, 118; West Way

by, 21; of Rome, 1 3 - 1 4 , 1 4 - 1 7 , 1 8 , 21; of Vienna, 35-36, 36-37. 38

proposal, 102. See also Times Square project New York Times, 105

INDEX

225

Nolli, Giambattista, 14, 14-15, 18, 21 notation systems, for design, 42

politics of representation, 41—42,130-32. See also decision making Portal del Paradiso, Baptistery San Giovanni di Firenze, 4,

objectivity/neutral stance, 173—76, 203; and control of information, 200; and public nature of representations, 201 Ochs, Adolf, 105 odometer (surveying instrument), 11, 13, 207n.i6 open spaces: climate in, 129—30; fear of, 35-36; in Times

5-9 Portmann Marriott Marquis Hotel (New York), 107 property (land), 40 psychic well-being, 35-36 public access to planning projects, 94, 102, 115, 121, 200; representations as public property, 199, 201

Square, 112, 1 1 6 , 1 1 8 Orange County, Calif., 86, 87

Quartier Modernes Fruges design (Le Corbusier), 38, 39

order vs. meaning, 187

Quattro /¿¿«(Palladio), 1 5 9 - 6 0 , 1 6 1 , 1 6 2 , 164-65, 2130.6

painting; Chinese landscapes, 49; pointillist, 178; upward

RADIANCE software, 2I4N.5

movement/progression in, 49—50 Palladio, Andrea, 139; Quattro libri, 159—60, 1 6 1 , 162, 164— 65, 2i3n.6

Ramblas (Barcelona), 26, 27, 28, 2 8 - 2 9 , 3 ° Raphael, 13 Rapoport, Amos, 189

"Panorama de Bercy" (Bisson), 1 8 0 , 1 8 0

Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, 23

Paris, 2 5 - 2 6 , 1 8 0 ; Parisians' images of, 42, 45; Venice vs.,

realism, 162,164—65; and camera lens distortion, 168, 169 (table), 1 7 0 - 7 2 , 171; and objectivity, 1 7 3 - 7 6 ; and

82, 83 Parks Council of New York City, 118 Pei (I. M.) and Partners, 2iin.i

representational medium, 188. See also computer simulations

perception. See sense perception

Red Books (Repton), 204

peripheral vision, 93—94

Renaissance architects/designers, xiv, 4. See also

perspective: aerial, 173, 204; Brunelleschi linear-perspective

Brunelleschi, Filippo; Leonardo da Vinci

painting of Baptistery, 3—4, 168, 173; correction of, 109;

representation, definitions of, xiv

eye-level, 204; limitations of linear, 4, 7 - 8 ; multiple-

Repton, Humphrey (landscape architect, 19th cent.): Red

station-point, 8-9; representing physical dimensions in space, 1 7 3 - 7 6 , 1 7 4 - 7 5 . ' 7 7 Philip II of Spain, 139

Books, 204 residential-density simulation, 1 8 8 - 8 9 , 1 9 0 - 9 1 . 192> I93 _ 95> 196,197

Phoenix, 140, 141

rhythm, movement and, 61, 90-91

photography: Baptistery San Giovanni di Firenze survey, 5—

Richelieu (France), 2o8n.8

8, 7-8; of building facades, 178, 1 8 1 , 1 8 1 ; color in, 178,

Ringstrasse (Vienna), 35

2i4n.i8; continuous-shot technique, 93, 2ion.i3; at eye

Rome: Leonardo's map of, 13—14; maps of, 14—17; Nolli's

level, HI; fish-eye images, 128; focal length/field of view,

map of, 14, 14-15, 18, 21; Venice vs., 78, 79

93,168, 169 (table), 1 7 0 - 7 2 , 171, 207n.i0; linear

Rope (Hitchcock), 93, 2ion.i3

perspective in, 3, 7—8; multiple station/reference points

Rovira i Tias, Antonio, 31

in, 8, 8-9, 171; objective vs. subjective recordings, 93,

Rowley, George, 49

210n.11; perspective-correcting technique, 109; photomaps, 1 7 3 - 7 6

Saalman, Howard, 11

physical dimensions, in space, 173—76,174—75, 1 7 7

Saftie, Moshe, 203, 204

Piazza del Comune (Assisi, Italy), 163

St. Gall (Switzerland), plan of, 11, 11

Place Royal (Paris), 208n.8

St. Peter's Basilica (Rome), 10, 207n.i2

places, definitions of, xiv

San Diego, 137

plague, 23

San Francisco, 1 2 1 - 3 7 ; aerial photo survey of, 176, 2 1 3 -

plans. See maps/plans

i 4 n n . i o - n ; Bay Area transit station project, 188-89,

plan view, 10, 1 0 - 1 1 , 1 1 - 1 2 , 1 3 , 1 8 7

1 9 0 - 9 1 , 1 9 2 , 1 9 3 - 9 5 , 1 9 7 ; Board of Supervisors,

pluralism, 40

129, 131; building height and floor space in, 1 2 6 - 2 8 , 1 2 7 ,

pointillism, 178, 181

2iin.5; Chinatown, 1 2 6 , 1 2 7 ; computer model of, 1 7 7 ;

policy making. See decision making

Department of City Planning, 128, 129, 131; downtown expansion, 124—26,125, 2iin.4; Embarcadero, 182; "hill"

226

INDEX

policy in, 127, 1 3 4 , 1 3 6 ; land use in, 121, 200; open

Tacitus, 139

spaces in, 129; public resistance to development, 125,

Talbot, William Henry Fox, 178

130—32, 200, 201, 2i4n.i; scale and character of

Taut, Bruno (architect), 40, 139-40, 2i2n.6

downtown districts, 2iin.3; scale model of, 1 2 3 , 1 2 4 , 1 2 6 ,

Television City (New York), 118, 1 3 7 , 1 7 0 - 7 2 , 1 7 1 - 7 2

1 2 7 ; South of Market, 132,134, 135; suburban

Temple of Minerva (Assisi, Italy), 1 5 9 - 6 0 , 1 6 1 - 6 4 ,

development, 125-26; sunlight in, 128, 1 2 9 - 3 0 , 1 3 0 ;

I( 2

5>

164-65, 2i3n.6

Venice vs., 64, 65, 66, 67. See also Mission Bay project;

texture, 181, 196. See also under computer simulations

San Francisco Downtown project

Theater Advisory Council (New York), 107

San Francisco Downtown project (Environmental

theater district. See Times Square

Simulation Lab), 103; accuracy of model challenged,

time, perceptions of, 61, 90, 91

200; Chinese Playground studied in, 128—29, I ) ° >

Times Square (New York), 1 0 5 - 1 8 , 1 1 7 , 1 1 9 ; air rights in,

climate studied in, 129-30, 131; film anticipating

1 0 6 , 107, 116; "as of right" building volumes in, 1 0 6 ,

Proposition O, 2iin.3; film of model showing changes,

107, 109, 116; brilliance of, 106, h i ; daylight in, 116,

126—27,127; model of San Francisco modified, 125, 133;

2iin.i2; landmarking in, 107; news band in, 105—6; New

political debate fueled by, 130—32; retail district modeled

York State redevelopment project for, 107; 1982

by, 128; scale studied in, 127—28, 132; sunlight studied in,

midtown planning controls, 1 0 6 , 106—7,

1 2 8 - 2 9 , 1 2 9 ; Transbay Terminal area studied in, 132, 134

1985/1986 development controls, 1 1 3 - 1 4 , 115-16, 1 1 6 ,

Santa Maria del Fiore, Cathedral of (Florence), 3, 4 , 1 8

io

9>

IIC>

;

118; office space in, i n , 2iin.io; theaters in, 105, 1 0 6 - 7 ,

Save the Theaters (New York), 107, 2 i i n . j

2iinn.3—5; Times Tower, 105; Venice vs., 68, 69. See also

Schoenfeld, Gerald, 107, 109

Times Square project

Schorske, Carl, 35

Times Square project (Environmental Simulation Lab):

scroll painting, 49

building height and floor space studied in, 1 1 2 , 1 1 3 , 1 1 5 —

sense perception: vs. conceptual representation, xiii, 18;

16, 118, 211n.11; electric signs studied in, 1 1 1 , ill—12,114,

perspective and, 9 sensory overload, 189, 192, 196 Seurat, Georges, 2 1 4 ^ 1 5 ; Farm Women at Work, 178, 179

115; models, 109, 1 0 9 - 1 0 , m , 2 i o - n n . 8 ; openness studied in, 112, 116, 118; public viewing of models, 115; scale disparity revealed by, i n

Shreveport (Louisiana), 200

Times Tower (New York), 105

simulations. See computer simulations

Tokyo, 140

Sitte, Camillo, 204; Städtebau, 35-36, 37, 38

topography, 38, 209^58

Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, 203

Toronto, 1 3 9 - 5 6 , 1 4 2 - 4 3 , 153; Bloor and Yonge Streets, 144,

sky. See sunlight

156, 2I2-I3n.9; building height/volume in, 149, 151, 153,

Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, The (Whyte), 149

154, 157; climate of, 140, 1 4 1 , 1 4 2 , 1 4 4 , 1 4 5 - 4 6 , 148,

social overload, 189, 192, 196

2i2-i3n.9; comfort maps/illustrations of, 1 5 0 , 1 5 4 ;

Sorte, G . J., 2ion.9

Downtown Center, 142-43; Planning and Development

space: awareness of, 41; physical dimensions in, 1 7 3 - 7 6 , 174-75.177 Spielman, Heinz, 160

Department, 2i2n.7; proposals for, 155—56; railroad yard area, 153,155; trees on downtown streets of, 155, 2i3n.i3; Venice vs., 74, 75. See also Toronto project

Städtebau (Sitte), 35-36, 37, 38

Toronto Dominion Center (Downtown Center), 142-43

standardization vs. individual style, 40

Toronto project (Environmental Simulation Lab), 103,

Stanford Shopping Center (Palo Alto, Calif.), 88, 89

2i2n.7; building height/volume studied in, 151, 153;

Star Wars (Lucas), 184, zion.io

pedestrian comfort studied in, 147, 149; wind conditions

streets: and climate, 139; and fire safety and health, 23; straight vs. winding, 38 Stiibben, Joseph (German planner), 34, 204 sunlight: and health, 139; measurements of, 2iin.i2; and

studied in, 140, 142, 143-44, 147 Townscape Movement, 4 0 - 4 1 Transbay Terminal (San Francisco), 132, 134 transit (surveying instrument), 1 1 , 1 3 , 2 0 7 ^ 1 5

pedestrian comfort, 140, 149; in San Francisco, 128,

triangulation, 25—26

129—30, 130; in Times Square, 116, 2iin.i2

trust of professionals, 102, 201

surveying: instruments, 1 1 , 1 3 , 207nn.i5—16; techniques, 13, 25-26, 28

University of California at Berkeley, 62, 63, 130-31. See also Environmental Simulation Laboratory

Unwin, Raymond, 34, 204 Urban Design Committee (American Institute of Architects), 132 Urbanism (Le Corbusier), 38 urban planning: and abstraction, 22; citizen involvement in, 42, 45, 47; and displacement of residents, 26; form of cities, 134, 137, 139—40,144, 155; geometric/rational design, 23, 25, 34, 38, 2o8n.8; and health and safety, 23, 2

5> 33. '395 historical roots of, 204; and psychic well-

being, 35-36; public access to, 94, 99, 102; and social problems, 33—34; and three-dimensional form, 35 Vancouver, 141 Velde, Henry van de, 40 Venice: Barcelona vs., 61, 84, 85; Berkeley campus vs., 62, 63; Copenhagen vs., 70, 71; Kyoto vs., 61, 76, 77; London vs., 80, 81; map of, 53; maps of historic center, 173,174-75, 2.1311.5; Orange County, vs., 86, 87; Paris vs., 82, 83; pictorial sequence of stroll in, 49—51, 51—52, 54-60, 54-60, 90-91; Rome vs., 78, 79; San Francisco vs., 64, 65, 66, 67; Stanford Shopping Center, vs., 88, 89; Times Square vs., 68, 69; Toronto vs., 74, 75; Washington, D.C., vs., 61, 72, 73 Victory Theater (New York), 107 Vienna, 1870, 35-36, 36-37 View from the Road, The (Appleyard, Lynch, and Myer), 90— 91, 91-92 viewing images, 168,171—72 Vitruvius, 139 Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, 2iin.i Washington, D.C.: building height in, 134; Venice vs., 61, 7 1 . 73 Werkbund (German Association of Craftsmen), 40 West Side Highway proposal (Manhattan), 101-2,103,103, 118 West Way proposal (Manhattan), 102 White House Conference on natural beauty (1965), 2ion.i6 Whyte, William: Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, The, 149 wind: climate and, 129-30,144; standards for protection from, 144, 2I2-I3n.9; in Toronto, 140, 142, 143-44, H5 Wohl, Helmut, 137 Wolfe, Ivor de, 40-41 Works Progress Administration, 124 Wren, Christopher, 23, 25, 2o8n.5, 2o8n.8 Wright, Frank Lloyd, 40; Guggenheim Museum, 203 Zube, Erwin, 137

228

INDEX

Designers: Steve Renick & John D. Berry Compositor: John D. Berry Design Text: Adobe Garamond with Myriad Display: Adobe Garamond Printer: Edwards Brothers Binder: Edwards Brothers