Direction of Cities

by John Guinther

Analyzes urban design, exploring how cities grow, what their functions are, which factors support their success and which cause damage, and how cities should best be designed

Genres: Architecture

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Stephen]

I remember reading this book riding the train from Chestnut Hill to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and then walking to Penn's campus the summer I started graduate school. I remember, vividly, walking from the my cousin's house where I stayed on the third floor on St. George's Lane to St Martin's Station. It was a lovely walk, bucolic almost, for being in Philadelphia. I remember lots of trees and charming stone houses, with shutters, and gravel driveways. And quiet. Until the trail showed up. And you always got a seat, since it was like the third stop.

[RJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Very Philadelphia-in-the-50s-centric which I didn't expect, but was good. Guinther definitely got a lot of that segment from the Philadelphia urban renewal chapter of Cities In a Race With Time. Also, a healthy dose of anti-Robert Moses, which is always welcome.

Actually softened my knee-jerk attitude against Edmund Bacon, which is probably a good thing.

All in all, good analysis, with the history sprinkled in.

[Aspen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't finish it. It's awful. The potentially interesting parts are things I have already learned, and the rest just drags...