Design of Cities

New York: The Viking Press [A Studio Book], 1974. Revised Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing thus. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11.25 inches. 336 pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (some in color). Foreword to the Revised Edition. Foreword [to the original edition] Appendix. Notes on Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. This is a large, heavy book and if sent outside of the United States would require additional postage. Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 - October 14, 2005) was an American urban planner, architect, educator, and author. During his tenure as the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970, his visions shaped today's Philadelphia, the city in which he was born, to the extent that he is sometimes described as "The Father of Modern Philadelphia". Among other works, he authored the seminal urban planning book Design of Cities. It was during his tenure at the City Planning Commission that Bacon and his staff conceived and implemented numerous large- and small-scale design ideas that shaped today's Philadelphia. These design concepts became Penn Center, Market East, Penn's Landing, Society Hill, Independence Mall, and the Far Northeast. After Bacon's retirement from the Planning Commission, he served as vice president for Mondev U.S.A., was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the University of Pennsylvania, and narrated "Understanding Cities", an award-winning series of documentary films describing the history and development of Rome under Pope Sixtus V, Paris under Georges-Eugène Haussmann, and Regency London under John Nash. "The major contemporary work on urban design . . . Splendidly presented, filled with thoughtful and brilliant intuitive insights."--The New Republic. In a brilliant synthesis of words and pictures, Edmund N. Bacon relates historical examples to modern principles of urban planning. He vividly demonstrates how the work of great architects and planners of the past can influence subsequent development and be continued by later generations. By illuminating the historical background of urban design, Bacon also shows us the fundamental forces and considerations that determine the form of a great city. Perhaps the most significant of these are simultaneous movement systems, the paths of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, public and private transportation, that serve as the dominant organizing force, and Bacon looks at movement systems in cities such as London, Rome, and New York. He also stresses the importance of designing open space as well as architectural mass and discusses the impact of space, color, and perspective on the city-dweller. That the centers of cities should and can be pleasant places in which to live, work, and relax is illustrated by such examples as Rotterdam and Stockholm.