Man-Made Philadelphia: A Guide to Its Physical and Cultural Environment

The Philadelphia of the 1970s retains strong ties with the Philadelphia of the 1770s: they share a number of significant buildings; there is a partial congruence of squares and streets; and, although the city has otherwise changed greatly since its youth, it remains one of the very few in America that fully merits a guide as comprehensive as this one, which affectionately details beauty marks and warts and all.

The book encompasses the city and its regional context, and presents—through text, photographs, maps in color of routes, areas, events, and resources—a full image of the city as seen by citizen and visitor as they drive along the major routes and walk within distinctive, largely homogeneous areas. The book highlights individual buildings and monuments, but these are placed in their human settings and are seen from a point of view that takes in the total environment. This guide to a city as it is and as it grew covers routes and areas, the facts of growth, and the plans for growth.

The reader is oriented along the major routes—Market and Broad, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the Schuylkill Expressway. He is shown through a number of areas, including Independence Mall, Franklin and Washington and Rittenhouse Squares, Logan Circle, Society Hill, University City, Fairmount Park, Penn Center, Germantown, and Chestnut Hill.

A following section graphically displays historical data on the city and the region, showing their growth patterns, total population and ethnic population changes, and legal jurisdictions and political districts. Transportation networks are also shown. The final section summarizes city plans from William Penn's of 1682 to the Citizen's Plan of 1960-1970 and the Center City Plan of 1970, gives additional information on Philadelphia architects and architecture, and leads the reader to some interesting interiors.

If Philadelphia merits a book like this, it's also true that the book is worth of Philadelphia. It is a kind of advanced celebration of the bicentennial of 1776.