It seems that the 1960s and 70s were fruitful decades for studying cities, even though many books from then do not have the longevity of, say, Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities, Lewis Mumford's The City in History and Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City. I really like coming across lesser-known books from this era that illustrate how architects and others were trying really hard to contend with modernism and make cities better places. Bernard Rudofsky's Streets for People is one such book (not as popular as his earlier Architecture Without Architects), as is landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's Cities, which I found recently at a used bookstore. First published in 1963 and then put out in a revised edition in 1972, Cities is a primarily photographic study of urban open spaces. For those familiar with Halprin, they will not be surprised that he "tried to avoid any implications of compositional principles, any rule book of urban aesthetics," since these "tend to lead into sterility," per the prologue. So it's a diverse book (though many examples are in California, where he spent much of his career) that is full of life, some of it explained through Halprin's signature choreographic drawings, which owe a debt to his wife, a prominent dancer. Overall, the book's charm comes from the way it focuses on the details of urban spaces, the things people may not pay attention to but which nevertheless shape their experiences outdoors.

This is the book behind so many contemporary ideas of public space, representation of cities, etc. A typology of urban spaces. ( )