Parallel Cities: The Multilevel Metropolis

Parallel Cities examines the history of the multilevel city with a focus on elevated pedestrian systems as a recurrent concept in urban planning and design. The book chronicles the evolution and migration of this concept from 19th-century French social utopian thinkers and 20th-century Soviet Constructivist architectural circles to its incubation in postwar London, its theorization by members of CIAM and Team 10, and its eventual dissemination to North America and Asia, where extensive systems were built in cities such as Minneapolis, Calgary and Hong Kong. This fascinating and untold history explores an architectural idea as it evolves under varying social, geographic and political contexts―charting its use as an ever-shifting multipurpose tool to segregate or commingle the classes, foster social cohesion and the public good, facilitate security and surveillance, improve pedestrian safety and traffic flows, or to enhance retail consumption by ameliorating climatic extremes. The implementation of streets above streets creates parallel cities, not mirrored but alternate realities where questions about access, use and control emerge. The book considers both radical visionary schemes of the future urban metropolis by progressive architects and the grand, if visually more mundane, implementation plans of extensive networks built in cities around the world that engender what the authors call a surreptitious urbanism. The first and only comprehensive book on the subject, Parallel Cities represents important new scholarly research on a topic that remains a persistent theme in architecture and urban planning. Accompanying the extensively illustrated text is a lexicon of related terms and an appendix of specific systems drawn from key cities.

Jennifer Yoos is a Minneapolis-based architect and design partner at VJAA. Yoos has authored essays on design and was co-author with partner Vincent James of a recent monograph on their practice published by Princeton Architectural Press. Her design work and research has been featured in exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, US Pavilion (2014), the Keller Gallery at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014), the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis (2011), and more. Her design work has also been published in Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, Architecture Review (UK), Perspecta, Praxis and Harvard Design Magazine, among others.

Vincent James is a Minneapolis-based architect and design partner at VJAA. James was appointed Adjunct Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he taught from 2000-2006. He has authored essays on design and was co-author with partner Jennifer Yoos of a recent monograph on their practice published by Princeton Architectural Press. His design work and research has been featured in exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, US Pavilion (2014), the Keller Gallery at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014), the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis (2011), and more. His design work has also been published in Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, Architecture Review (UK), Perspecta, Praxis, Harvard Design Magazine, A+U.

Andrew Blauvelt lives and works in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA. He is Director of Cranbrook Art Museum and the former Senior Curator, Design, Research, and Publishing at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He has organized numerous exhibitions on architecture and design for the Walker Art Center and has authored essays and served as editor for several accompanying publications, including: Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life (2003); Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes (2008), and Graphic Design: Now in Production (2011).