Why cities look the way they do
Williams, Richard J., 1967-2019
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We tend to think cities look the way they do because of the conscious work of architects, planners, and builders. But what if the look of cities had less to do with design, and more to do with social, cultural, financial, and political processes, and the way ordinary citizens interact with them? What if the city is a process as much as a design? Richard J. Williams takes the moment construction is finished as a beginning, tracing the myriad processes that produce the look of the contemporary global city. This book is the story of dramatic but unforeseen urban sights: how financial capital spawns empty towering skyscrapers and hollowed-out ghettoes; how the zoning of once-illicit sexual practices in marginal areas of the city results in the reinvention of culturally vibrant gay villages; how abandoned factories have been repurposed as creative hubs in a precarious postindustrial economy.
Main title:
Why cities look the way they do / Richard J. Williams.
Author:
Imprint:
Cambridge : Polity, 2019.Cambridge : Polity, 2019.
Collation:
xix, 224 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 22 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780745691817 (pbk)
Dewey class:
307.76
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2231966