City Life - Softcover

Rybczynski, Witold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684825295 ISBN 13: 9780684825298

Publisher: Scribner, 1996

Synopsis

In City Life, Witold Rybczynski looks at what we want from cities, how they have evolved, and what accounts for their unique identities. In this vivid description of everything from the early colonial settlements to the advent of the skyscraper to the changes wrought by the automobile, the telephone, the airplane, and telecommuting, Rybczynski reveals how our urban spaces have been shaped by the landscapes and lifestyles of the New World.

About this title

About the Author

Witold Rybczynski has written about architecture and urbanism for The New York Times, Time, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Home and the award-winning A Clearing in the Distance, as well as The Biography of a Building, The Mysteries of the Mall, and Now I Sit Me Down. The recipient of the National Building Museum’s 2007 Vincent Scully Prize, he lives with his wife in Philadelphia, where he is emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. 

From Booklist

Gazing at elegant Paris, a visitor from North America plaintively asked her companion, "Why aren't our cities like that?" Fortunately that companion was Rybczynski, an astute architectural historian whose knowledge and sparkling writing (e.g., Home, 1986) ensure that his readers will no longer think of their American cities as apres-teardowns in progress. Rather, they might reimagine their cities' potential for beauty and sociability in light of this history of urban development, from the first planned towns, Philadelphia and Williamsburg, to the chaotic sprawls of Houston and Los Angeles. Deftly conveying what planners expected their new towns to become, Rybczynski commands a wealth of trenchant detail that reveals bucolic attitudes (e.g., the American penchant for naming streets after trees) or evolving architectural fashions, such as the faddish "urban renewal" movement of the 1950s. An early reform that achieved aesthetic success, the "City Beautiful" movement of the 1900s, exemplifies periodic civic self-examinations. Rybczynski's able perceptions illuminate all those developments, making this fascinating reading trip from de Tocqueville's observations to the present exurbs both exhilarating and rueful by turns. Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0684825295
• ISBN 13: 9780684825298
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256