Great Public Squares
An Architect's Selection
Robert F. Gatje (Author)
Forty outstanding urban spaces of the Western world, analyzed and drawn at a common scale for easy comparison.
From the storied piazzas of Rome, Venice, and Florence to the elegant places of Paris via less familiar gathering places in Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Portugal, to the former marketplaces and graceful Georgian-style squares of the United Kingdom, to the most interesting and impressive squares of the New World—Santa Fe, Portland, Boston, and New York—architect Robert Gatje offers new insights, stunning computer-generated plans, and color photographs to convey the spatial experience, supplemented by a brief history of each square and measurements to assess their success in meeting human needs for inspiring outdoor space. There is no other source for this comparative data in one place.
Book Details
- Hardcover
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Forthcoming
March 2010
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ISBN 978-0-393-73173-6
- 11 × 11 in
/ 224 pages
- Territory Rights: Worldwide
Endorsements & Reviews
“If we but pay attention, Bob Gatje's beautiful drawings and intelligent text will take us a long way toward reviving the lost art of designing coherent public spaces, the most urgent architectural issue of our time.” — Robert A.M. Stern
“Squares, to be great, rely on having an attitude about entries, exits, likely paths, surrounding edges, surfaces, and, like typefaces, consider history and associations and occasionally include trees, flower beds, and, of course, require repeated visits. The equivalent in graphic terms of illustrations or photographs used in print or on television. Squares are a fascinating and rich subject for everyone concerned about their visual environment. Bob Gattje understands them.” — Ivan Chermayeff
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