San Francisco Chronicle's 2016 Holiday Books Gift Guide Pick
What makes a great city? Not a good city or a functional city but a great city. A city that people admire, learn from, and replicate. City planner and architect Alexander Garvin set out to answer this question by observing cities, largely in North America and Europe, with special attention to Paris, London, New York, and Vienna.
For Garvin, greatness is not just about the most beautiful, convenient, or well-managed city; it isn't even about any city.a It is about what people who shape cities can do to make a city great. A great city is not an exquisite, completed artifact. It is a dynamic, constantly changing place that residents and their leaders can reshape to satisfy their demands. While this book does discuss the history, demographic composition, politics, economy, topography, history, layout, architecture, and planning of great cities, it is not about these aspects alone. Most importantly, it is about the interplay between people and public realm, and how they have interacted throughout history to create great cities.
To open the book, Garvin explains that a great public realm attracts and retains the people who make a city great. He describes exactly what the term public realm means, its most important characteristics, as well as providing examples of when and how these characteristics work, or don't. An entire chapter is devoted to a discussion of how particular components of the public realm (squares in London, parks in Minneapolis, and streets in Madrid) shape people's daily lives. He concludes with a look at how twenty-first century initiatives in Paris, Houston, Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Toronto are making an already fine public realm even better'initiatives that demonstrate what other cities can do to improve.
What Makes a Great City will help readers understand that any city can be changed for the better and inspire entrepreneurs, public officials, and city residents to do it themselves.
Preface: What Makes a Great City
Chapter 1: The Importance of the Public Realm Defining the Public Realm Streets, Squares, and Parks Beyond Streets, Squares, and Parks Making Cities Great
Chapter 2: The Characteristics of the Public Realm Open to Anybody Something for Everybody Attracting and Retaining Market Demand Providing a Framework for Successful Urbanization Sustaining a Habitable Environment Nurturing and Supporting a Civil Society
Chapter 3: Open to Anybody Overwhelmingly Identifiable, Accessible, and Easy to Use Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain Creating an Identifiable, Accessible, and Easy-to-Use Public Realm The Paris Metro Federal Center, Chicago Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy The Squares of Savannah Sixteenth Street, Denver Keeping the Public Realm Safe Gran Via, Barcelona Piet Heinkade, Amsterdam The Streets of Paris Feeling Comfortable Jardin du Palais Royale, Paris Commonwealth Avenue, Boston Kungstradgarten, Stockholm Via dei Condotti, Rome Via Aquilante, Gubbio, Italy Worth Avenue, Palm Beach Levittown, Long Island Forever Welcoming
Chapter 4: Something for Everybody A Reason to Return Again and Again Boulevard des Italiens, Paris Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris Washington Park, Chicago Having Fun Playgrounds Piazza Navona, Rome Animating a Multifunctional Public Realm Market Square and PPG Place, Pittsburgh A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place Central Park, New York City Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona Reclaiming Bits of the Public Realm for Public Use Plenty of People
Chapter 5: Attracting and Retaining Market Demand Using the Public Realm to Trigger Private Development Place des Vosges, Paris The Revival of the Place des Vosges Regent's Park, London Avenue Foch, Paris Enlarging the Public Realm to Accommodate a Growing Market An Administrative Center for the Modern City of Paris North Michigan Avenue, Chicago Responding to Diminishing Market Demand by Repositioning the Public Realm Kärntner Stra+e, Vienna Bryant Park, New York City Continuing Investment
Chapter 6: Providing a Framework for Successful Urbanization Alternative Frameworks Atlanta Dubrovnik, Croatia Rome St. Petersburg, Russia The Paris Street Network Ringstrasse, Vienna Radio-Concentric Moscow Houston's Highway Rings The Manhattan Grid Maintaining the Public Realm Framework Thirty-Fourth Street, Manhattan Determining the Location of Market Activity
Chapter 7: Sustaining a Habitable Environment What Does It Take to Sustain a Habitable Environment? Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn Using the Public Realm to Create a Habitable Environment Boston's Emerald Necklace Long Island's Network of Parks, Beaches, and Parkways Reconfiguring the Public Realm to Improve Habitability The Public Squares of Portland, Oregon New York City's Greenstreets Program Transportation Alternatives that Improve Habitability Union Square, San Francisco Post Office Square, Boston Congestion Pricing in London Congestion Targets in Zurich An Ever More Habitable Public Realm The Chicago Lakeshore Reviving the San Antonio River Operating the Public Realm Park Management in New York City An Ever-Improving Public Realm
Chapter 8: Nurturing and Supporting a Civil Society The Nurturing Role of the Public Realm The Streets of Copenhagen Palace Square (Dvortsovaya Ploshchad), St. Petersburg Red Square, Moscow Ensuring that the Public Realm Continues to Nurture a Civil Society Times Square, Manhattan The Public Realm as a Setting for Self-Expression
Chapter 9: Using the Public Realm to Shape Everyday Life Whose Realm Is It? Determining the Daily Life of a City The Squares of London The Minneapolis Park System The Madrid Miracle The Key to Greatness
Chapter 10: Creating a Public Realm for the Twenty-First Century The Patient Search for a Better Tomorrow Place de la République, Paris Post Oak Boulevard in the Uptown District of Houston Brooklyn Bridge Park Atlanta's BeltLine Emerald Necklace Waterfront Toronto What Makes a City Great
"Provides readers with a better understanding of the variety of ways that designers, planners, and public officials can improve their cities."
