Streets for People
MINI-REVIEW: A Primer for Americans by Bernard Rudofsky
A fascinating tour de force about the history and design of spaces designed for the walking person.
Streets for People
A Primer for Americans
(Paperback Edition)
The title of this book says it all. Dedicated “to the unknown pedestrian” this unusual work, written by an unusual author, is a fascinating tour de force about the history and design of spaces designed for the walking person. No cars, no buses, no trains, trams or subways.
Bernard Rudofsky
Street at Vicenza, Italy
Pavement at Tetuan, Morocco
Bernard Rudofsky wrote on a wide variety of eclectic topics, including books on the Japanese mentality, commentary on the American way of life, architecture, and incompatibility of the human body and dress. Having held professorships at Yale University and Waseda University in Tokyo, Rudofsky (an architect, engineer and critic) was also a Ford, Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellow. He lived for many years in some of the great cities of the world, including Vienna, Constantinople before its westernization, Rio de Janeiro, six years in Italian towns, two years in Japanese towns, and New York.
Streets for People is a marvellous romp through various locations around the globe, with an emphasis on how the physical spaces and architectures in the represented cultures have been designed for the meeting and interaction of the people who live in those places. Following several intriguing chapters covering the development of Manhattan Island from its earliest days (focusing on how its development has resulted in the design of its physical space), the author entertains the reader with chapters on canopied streets, stairs, bridges, elevated streets, mazes, and fountains, among other topics. Illustrations and photographs from around the world add to the liveliness of the discussion. I highly recommend this book!
Although it’s out of print, Streets for People is fairly widely available from online booksellers, including those listed below.
Bernard Rudofsky
- Wikipedia
- TIME Magazine
- New York Times
- New York Times
- Papers at the Online Archive of California (PDF)
- Magazine by Velux
- J. Paul Getty Museum
Product Information
- Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold, acquired by Wiley in 1997
(First published by Doubleday, 1969) - Copyright: © 1982
- ISBN 10: 0442278403
- ISBN 13: 9780442278403
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