Best of
Urban-Studies

1994

A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time


J.B. Jackson - 1994
    Jackson, a pioneer in the field of landscape studies, here takes us on a tour of American landscapes past and present, showing how our surroundings reflect important changes in our culture. Because we live in urban and industrial environments that are constantly evolving, says Jackson, time and movement are increasingly important to us and place and permanence are less so. We no longer gain a feeling of community from where we live or where we assemble but from common work hours, habits, and customs. Jackson examines the new vernacular landscape of trailers, parking lots, trucks, loading docks, and suburban garages, which all reflect this emphasis on mobility and transience; he redefines roads as scenes of work and leisure and social intercourse—as places, rather than as means of getting to places; he argues that public parks are now primarily for children, older people, and nature lovers, while more mobile or gregarious people seek recreation in shopping malls, in the street, and in sports arenas; he traces the development of dwellings in New Mexico from prehistoric Pueblo villages to mobile homes; and he criticizes the tendency of some environmentalists to venerate nature instead of interacting with it and learning to share it with others in temporary ways. Written with his customary lucidity and elegance, this book reveals Jackson's passion for vernacular culture, his insights into a style of life that blurs the boundaries between work and leisure, between middle and working classes, and between public and private spaces.

Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States


Paul Groth - 1994
    Since 1870, however, they have been the target of an official war led by people whose concept of home does not include the hotel. Do these residences constitute an essential housing resource, or are they, as charged, a public nuisance?Living Downtown, the first comprehensive social and cultural history of life in American residential hotels, adds a much-needed historical perspective to this ongoing debate. Creatively combining evidence from biographies, buildings and urban neighborhoods, workplace records, and housing policies, Paul Groth provides a definitive analysis of life in four price-differentiated types of downtown residence. He demonstrates that these hotels have played a valuable socioeconomic role as home to both long-term residents and temporary laborers. Also, the convenience of hotels has made them the residence of choice for a surprising number of Americans, from hobo author Boxcar Bertha to Calvin Coolidge.Groth examines the social and cultural objections to hotel households and the increasing efforts to eliminate them, which have led to the seemingly irrational destruction of millions of such housing units since 1960. He argues convincingly that these efforts have been a leading contributor to urban homelessness.This highly original and timely work aims to expand the concept of the American home and to recast accepted notions about the relationships among urban life, architecture, and the public management of residential environments.

Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature


Mark Thompson - 1994
    ONE OF THE MOST PROVOCATIVE BOOKS TO APPEAR IN GAY LITERATURE IN YEARSFrom longtime 'Advocate' editor Mark Thompson - black-and-white photographs and searching, provocative interviews with sixteen renowned gay elders whose vision and leade

Chambers for a Memory Palace


Donlyn Lyndon - 1994
    There are treasures enough in this chamber to delight anyone interested in architecture." -- Richard Weston, "The Architects' Journal" This collaboration between two distinguished architects and former colleagues is a joyous celebration of admired places and a thoughtful consideration of the role that design has played in giving these places their memorable qualities. It is also an invitation to readers to inhabit the chambers of the book with their own imaginations to join in the making of the Memory Palace proposed. The authors' informal, witty, and anecdotal style extends to the illustrations - the freehand travel sketches, line drawings, and watercolors of places they have remembered and enjoyed.Chambers for a Memory Palace consists of an exchange of letters in which one author recalls and the other responds to the elements considered essential to the art of successful place-making. Each of the book's chapters forms a chamber, and each chamber is inscribed with personal observations on the composition of places and the architectural elements central to each building, garden, court, monument, or open space described. The examples considered in these dialogues range from classic Western tradition to Asian temples and Islamic tombs, from ancient ruins to modern cities.

Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art


Suzanne Lacy - 1994
    Departing from the traditional definition of public art as sculpture in parks and plazas, new genre public art brings artists into direct engagement with audiences; definitive collection of writings on the subject.[art][current events][culture]

The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty


Jill Quadagno - 1994
    Some critics have explained the failure of social programs by citing our tradition of individual freedom and libertarian values, while others point to weaknesses within the working class. In The Color of Welfare, Jill Quadagno takes exception to these claims, placing race at the center of the American Dilemma, as Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal did half a century ago. The American creed of liberty, justice, and equality clashed with a history of active racial discrimination, says Quadagno. It is racism that has undermined the War on Poverty, and America must come to terms with this history if there is to be any hope of addressing welfare reform today. From Reconstruction to Lyndon Johnson and beyond, Quadagno reveals how American social policy has continually foundered on issues of race. Drawing on extensive primary research, Quadagno shows, for instance, how Roosevelt, in need of support from southern congressmen, excluded African Americans from the core programs of the Social Security Act. Turning to Lyndon Johnson's unconditional war on poverty, she contends that though anti-poverty programs for job training, community action, health care, housing, and education have accomplished much, they have not been fully realized because they became inextricably intertwined with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which triggered a white backlash. Job training programs, for instance, became affirmative action programs, programs to improve housing became programs to integrate housing, programs that began as community action to upgrade the quality of life in the cities were taken over by local civil rights groups. This shift of emphasis eventually alienated white, working-class Americans, who had some of the same needs--for health care, subsidized housing, and job training opportunities--but who got very little from these programs. At the same time, affirmative action clashed openly with organized labor, and equal housing raised protests from the white suburban middle-class, who didn't want their neighborhoods integrated. Quadagno shows that Nixon, who initially supported many of Johnson's programs, eventually caught on that the white middle class was disenchanted. He realized that his grand plan for welfare reform, the Family Assistance Plan, threatened to undermine wages in the South and alienate the Republican party's new constituency--white, southern Democrats--and therefore dropped it. In the 1960s, the United States embarked on a journey to resolve the American dilemma. Yet instead of finally instituting full democratic rights for all its citizens, the policies enacted in that turbulent decade failed dismally. The Color of Welfare reveals the root cause of this failure--the inability to address racial inequality.

Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City


John Andrew Gallery - 1994
    Its 'collection' includes…virtually every important style found throughout the United States."—From the IntroductionPhiladelphia Architecture provides descriptions and photographs of over 400 of the city's important buildings. With seven walking tours, historical timelines, and short biographies of Philadelphia architects (including Frank Furness and Louis Kahn), the book will appeal to visitors, residents, and architecture enthusiasts.The core of the guide is a catalog of 250 buildings representing a broad range of building types and architectural styles. The building entries are divided into three chronological sections: 1682–1820; 1821–1900; 1900–1983. Each entry gives the name, date, location, and architect as well as information about the client, events related to the building, its use and major architectural features. The descriptions show how the buildings fit into the social and economic history of the city as well as how they relate to the evolution of architectural styles.Each chronological section is introduced by an essay which describes the physical, social, and economic growth of the city, thereby placing the buildings in a broader context. These essays are illustrated by maps and decorative arts representative of the period. There is an illustrated glossary of architectural terms and biographies of the most important Philadelphia architects.The guide also contains nine walking and driving tours with four-color maps of areas with significant concentrations of important buildings, and cross-referenced to the building entries. Places of interest in the city and region such as the Italian Market, Longwood Gardens, and The Philadelphia Zoo are highlighted. A reference section (places to get information about architecture, tours and the like) and an index conclude this handy, informative book.Philadelphia Architecture is copublished with The Foundation for Architecture, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute for Architects.John Andrew Gallery has been a member of Philadelphia's community development and historic preservation community for close to fifty years. From 2002 to 2013, he was Executive Director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, where he advocated for the city's historic built environment. He is the author of The Planning of Center City Philadelphia: From William Penn to the Present and editor of Sacred Sites of Center City, both available from Paul Dry Books.

Reshaping Ethnic Relations: Immigrants in a Divided City


Judith Goode - 1994
    In this ethnographic study, which is a result of the Ford Foundation-funded Changing Relations: Newcomers and Established Residents in Philadelphia Project, the authors consider five primary groups—whites, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, and Eastern Europeans—in Olney, Kensington, and Port Richmond. Focusing on the interaction of racial, ethnic, and immigrant communities in schools, organized community celebrations and social events, the workplace, shopping areas, and neighborhood politics, the authors show that the contradictions of individual beliefs, actions, and strategies of power are not easily resolved. By examining the local, citywide, and national economy and government, previous human relations efforts, changing immigration patterns, community-level power structures, real estate turnover, and gentrification, the authors evaluate current strategies to create harmony in communities with an ever-changing mix of established residents and newly arrived immigrants. Through their findings, Judith Goode and Jo Anne Schneider develop better alternatives that will encourage understanding and cooperation among different racial and ethnic groups sharing their lives and neighborhoods.

Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skid Rows, and Suburbs


Larry R. Ford - 1994
    From office towers in the central business district to commercial strips in the edge city, Ford shows how changes in the built environment parallel changes in urban economies and human culture. Focusing on ordinary structures rather than famous landmarks, the book aims to provide a guide to understanding the changing character of any urban landscape.

No Easy Walk: Newark, 1980-1993


Helen M. Stummer - 1994
    Following day-to-day life, this text documents with photographs the abysmal deterioration of the inner city of Newark, its run-down buildings slated for demolition, the empty lots where children play amidst old tyres, garbage and broken glass.

The Will And The Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect


Karen E. Hudson - 1994
    Williams (1894-1980), an important African-American architect.

Staying on the Line: Blue-Collar Women in Contemporary Japan


Glenda S. Roberts - 1994
    Through personal accounts of factory life, the author examines why these women work, what satisfaction they find in remaining in the workforce, and how they meet the demands of work and household, caught in a contradiction between traditional socio-cultural ideology and modern economic reality.