by Allan B. Jacobs -- MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1993 (first edition hardcover),  MIT Press. 1995 and 1999 (paperback)

Author

Allan B. Jacobs is Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley.

Blurbs

“With its thorough chronicling of building heights, tree spacing, relative widths of streets, sidewalks and cartways, this book will undoubtedly serve as a welcome reference tool for designers and urban planners. But for the lay reader, it is also an oddly poetic attempt to capture the undefinable quality that makes a street truly ‘great.’ To make his point, Jacobs, uses text and 242 graceful line drawings to explore the magic of some 15 great streets, most of them European, including Barcelona's Ramblas, the Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris, Via dei Giubbonari in Rome and even Venice's Grand Canal. Other well- and lesser-known examples appear in a second section comparing types of streets--boulevards, commercial strips, small-town main streets and residential roads. Finally, Jacobs analyzes those factors that make streets great: buildings of similar height, interesting facades, trees, windows that invite viewing, intersections, beginnings and endings, stopping places and, to be sure, space for leisurely walking. These are necessary qualities, but, as Jacobs warns, do not ensure a great street. 'A final ingredient--perhaps the most important--is necessary . . . the magic of design.'"-- Publishers Weekly. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jacobs presents an insightful, richly illustrated compendium of the best examples of streets from all over the world. The streets, both ancient and modern, are analyzed and presented as an instructional sourcebook for the architect, urban planner, and civic-minded reader. Jacobs devotes the first part of the book to 15 of the finest manifestations, ranging from European medieval streets to the grand boulevards of Paris; from the network of finely scaled streets of Bath, England, to Richmond's (Va.) Monument Avenue, a tree-lined residential thoroughfare punctuated with fine civic sculpture. One chapter, illustrating one-square-mile maps of street patterns in 50 cities, offers a fascinating comparison of urban fabric literally from Ahmedabad to Zurich. -- Library Journal. Thomas P.R. Nugent. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Why Read It

 What a crazy idea: streets could be great. So much for traffic sewers. This book and the other Jacobs tome, The Boulevard Book, have influenced designers and citizen activists across the country. The hardback can still be found used, but the paperback editions are more valuable because they can be laid open on drafting tables, shoved down onto copy machines, covered with trace paper and subjected to the other abuses characteristic of really useful books.