Chapter 10: The City as Text: Architecture and Urban Design
When thinking about the landscape of an urban area, the first image that comes to mind is that of the skyline, dotted by skyscrapers and other massive buildings. However, there is much more to the design of cities than just the buildings; many different types of architecture are present in modern day cities, as well as other types of public amenities such as parks.
Parks
Public parks were created because of the clutter of cities and the overwhelming amount of people that resided there, they used these parks as a way of expressing ideals- religious, social. Furthermore, because of urbanization and the paving of roads and everything like that, there were very few trees and other greenery left in the city. By creating an area such as Central Park in NYC (shown at left), it was allowing people to see at least a little return to a naturalistic habitat.
Beaux Arts
Another result of the urbanization of America was to try to create more beautiful cities. Thus the Beaux Arts movement was adopted in America, and its implementation can especially be seen in the city of Washington, D.C. The mall and the Federal Triangle all were built in a somewhat uniform manner, in a neoclassical style. While there was still a great deal of urbanization of the area, because of the careful planning, it did not come at the expense of the view.
Skyscrapers
Chicago was the first city to be affected by the skyscraper movement, but it quickly spread to other cities in the country. This was because the preconditions of the first passenger elevator, the use of wrought iron beams, and the creation of an iron frame all coincided with Chicago's development. The appeal of the skyscraper was that it was able to rise to unbelievable heights while taking up only a small portion of actual ground area. It also appealed to businesses machismo, for whoever had the biggest building was sure to draw the most attention, awe, and therefore customers.
American Modernism
Today, many buildings are built with ubiquitous amounts of steel and glass, which is supposed to be a reflection for today's technology and modernity. Many of them also utilize glass so that they can reflect their surroundings. A proposed 115 story skyscraper, to be constructed in Chicago, is pictured at right. The problem is, in a post 9-11 world, there is a huge fear that to create such tall structures is to invite terrorist attacks.
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