Streets

by Çelik, Zeynep; Favro, Diane; Ingersoll, Richard; Kostof, Spiro

• ISBN13: 9780520205284
• ISBN10: 0520205286
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

This collection of twenty-one essays, written by colleagues and former students of the architectural historian Spiro Kostof (1936-1991), presents case studies on Kostof's model of urban forms and fabrics. The essays are remarkably diverse: the range includes pre-Columbian Inca settlements, fourteenth-century Cairo, nineteenth-century New Orleans, and twentieth-century Tokyo. Focusing on individual streets around the world and from different historical periods, the collection is an inviting overview of the street as an urban institution. The theme of the volume is that the street presents itself as the basic structuring device of a city's form and also as the locus of its civilization. Each essay is a detailed investigation of a single urban street with unique historical conditions. The authors' shared concern regarding anthropological, political, and technical aspects of street making coalesce into a critical discourse on urban space. A fitting tribute to Spiro Kostof, this collection will be greatly admired by scholars and general readers alike.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Streets and the Urban Process: A Tribute to Spiro Kostof	p. 1
His Majesty the Pick: The Aesthetics of Demolition	p. 9
San Francisco: Third and Howard: Skid Row and the Limits of Architecture	p. 23
Osaka: Underground in Umeda	p. 35
Kaifeng and Yangzhou: The Birth of the Commercial Street	p. 45
Moscow: Gorki Street and the Design of the Stalin Revolution	p. 57
Cairo: Bayn al-Qasrayn: The Street between the Two Palaces	p. 71
Istanbul: Urban Preservation as Theme Park: The Case of Sogukcesme Street	p. 83
Ephesus: The Street Experience of Ancient Ephesus	p. 95
Athens: Etching Images on the Street: Planning and National Aspirations	p. 111
Noto: Noto's Corso Remembered, 1693-1993	p. 125
Tripoli: Piazza Castello and the Making of a Fascist Colonial Capital	p. 135
Rome: The Street Triumphant: The Urban Impact of Roman Triumphal Parades	p. 151
Rome: Via della Lungaretta: The Making of a Medieval Street	p. 165
Rome: Piazza di Ponte and the Military Origins of Panopticism	p. 177
Rome: Absolutism and the Rhetoric of Topography: Streets in the Rome of Sixtus V	p. 189
London: The Healthy Victorian City: The Old London Street at the International Health Exhibition of 1884	p. 203
Cardiff: Bute Street	p. 213
Rabat: Boulevard Muhammad V	p. 225
Cuzco: Hawkaypata: The Terrace of Leisure	p. 235
Washington, D.C.: Silver Spring: Georgia Avenue, Colesville Road, and the Creation of an Alternative "Downtown" for Metropolitan Washington	p. 247
Chicago: Planning Wacker Drive	p. 259
New Orleans: The Master Street of the World: The Levee	p. 277
About the Contributors	p. 289
Credits	p. 292
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