5 comments about A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series).

1. I bought this book after reading the glowing reviews on amazon. It was also an inspiration for Will Wright to make SimCity and the SIMS..... so I had high expectations.
   
   I was shocked to find how opinionated and philosophical the book is. I expected the book to look at the history of cities, towns, etc. and describe patterns that already exist (much like the GoF's software design patterns book talks about patterns that people actually use). Instead the book presents a series of ideals about how the world should be structured.
   
   If these ideals came from concerns I could identify with, I would take it more seriously. But instead they attack "problems" which I do not perceive to exist. For example, on p. 43 "The homogeneous and undifferentiated character of modern cities kills all variety of life styles and arrest the growth of individual character." This statement is contrary to my experience. I have met many great characters from cities, and seen profound cultural differentiation emerge from cities (e.g. jazz, abstract painting, hippie culture, punk, you name it). But the authors proceed as if cities killing character is axiomatic. I agree that there is a rural character that is not present in cities. But citydwellers have another type of character which is equally valid.
   
   I have only made it through the first 100 pages. In these pages are so many naive ideas about mixing cityspace and vacant space. I live in Los Angeles so I know about sprawl & I also know a lot about cars -- while they are aiming for less sprawl then LA, they also neglect traffic congestion. They claim that making small roads in places make people reluctant to drive there.... the experience worldwide (worst in Malaysia, I hear) is that people use whatever roads are present, and if the roads are small, they then just end up sitting in traffic. The author's are naive in their structuring of space, nowhere do they cite any hard evidence of how these structures function.
   
   I might make it the rest of the way through.... at least it's an easy read, with so many repetitions in how the models work you can kinda skim through it. I like the spirit of the book, it is reminiscent of P.M.'s bolo'bolo.... but where bolo'bolo comes from a purely emotional position, these authors take themselves seriously and believe what they are saying is objectively true. I give the book 3 stars because it is nice to see someone work through the ideas of bolo'bolo (which was actually written ~6yrs after alexander's book). I would give 5 stars to a book that did so by looking more at actual data of how spaces are utilized, and presented designs that didn't have obvious flaws in them.



2. Time has not eroded the significance of this book's contribution to the world of architecture. Though it reaches back to timeless solutions to architectural problems, it is also a way forward. As we devour our social capital in a half century of indiscriminate urban sprawl, this book offers alternatives that will help us revitalize our urban centers.



3. This book is the quintessential book on the subject of creating authentic living spaces.
   This book provides a near mystical approach to architecture in a very simplistic form that anyone can understand.



4. This book talks specifically about what works and doesn't work when building cities and towns and how to take the human element into consideration when doing so. However, I found its conclusions and most of its patterns applicable to software engineering. There are good books on software design patterns such as "Head First Design Patterns", and there are some good books on user interface design such as "Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design", but this book really helped me merge the idea of software design patterns with the user perspective in a way that other books I have read have not.
   
   If you are a software designer, read the book all the way through, make notes as you go, and see if it doesn't help you write better organized code that is more responsive and coherent to a user who walks up to your user interface completely uninitiated in your method of design. I know it helped me.



5. This was an extremely helpful book in using to decide what house or town home to buy, why spaces might work, what needs to be added to them, etc. I am very glad I bought this book.

5 comments about The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

1. Still relevant, still useful....and still ignored by the common city engineer. Our city's planners need to re-read this sucker.



2. This is a book that relates to designers, and city planners as well as the "un-educated". Reading this book will certainly inform one on the purpose and importance of city planning.



3. This book will give you a reason to want to go visit the city, or to go out and get into the city you already live in. Her reference to the "ballet of the sidewalks" gives a whole new twist to what is going on in a busy downtown. City planners, take note!



4. If you are interested in community building, urban planning, and city life in general, this is a must-read. Though the book is older, the themes and ideas stand the test of time.



5. WELL WORTH READING, TIMELESS IN HER LOOK CITY LIFE AND HOW THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT BOTH INFLUENCES HOW WE LIVE, WORK, PLAY. TERRIFFIC BOOK.

1 comments about The Endless City.

1. Mega cities: New York, London, Shanghai, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Berlin, are undergoing major transitions. Shanghai is increasing leaps and bounds, yet Johannesburg is shrinking. People are migrating to the city for jobs and clearly it is a global trend. By 2015, Lagos may have more people than Mumbai. With discount airlines, internet and globalization, it is easier to move to another city. European Union now has 27 countries, 500 million people. Where do they go? London, Paris or Berlin? Greater Tokyo will have 54 million, Euro-Lowlands (Ruhr-Cologne, Amsterdam-Rotterdam, Brussels-Antwerp, Lille) will get 50 million, Urb-Italy (Milan, Rome, Turin) gets 47 million, etc. A taconomy of towers, green city, build a community, public space, etc are urgent issues facing the increasing population of the mega cities.
   
   I have traveled to most of these cities. I do agree with the findings of this book, "people are moving to mega cities in every country". For countries such as Japan and Germany, there was little increase in population. Many cities in East Germany now appear to be ghost towns. The government needs to change its policy, allowing more immigrants. Since the birth rates in these two countries are very low, immigration is the only way to increase populations. With more people, government will get more tax revenues and the economy will grow.
   
   The book will be better if it covers cities such as Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, etc. Eastern Europe is not included at all due to the lack of mega cities.

5 comments about Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

1. While "Delirious" has its fair share of archispeak, Mr. Koolhaas pulls off an intelligent, fun and thought-provoking take on the early 20th century building culture of New York.
   
   One of the quirkier aspects of "Delirious" is Mr. Koolhaas's analysis of Coney Island: an "incubator for Manhattan's incipient themes." As a reader, one initially questions the inclusion of such a trashy place in such a lofty manifesto. However, as the chapter progresses, you start to see Mr. Koolhaas's iconoclastic brilliance. He pays an amazing homage to "the laboratory" that was Coney Island, illuminating the vital role it played in the building philosophies that would emerge later in Manhattan.
   
   Scattered throughout "Delirious," also, are compelling supporting images that Mr. Koolhaas clearly spent a lot of time digging up. In fact, flipping through the book for the images alone makes for a near-equivalent, and fun, learning experience.
   
   However, unlike his tasteful use of images, Mr. Koolhaaas's flamboyant use of scholarly English makes his writing difficult to digest at times:
   
   "It is probably inevitable that a doctrine based on the continual simulation of pragmatism, on a self-imposed amnesia that allows the continuous reenactment of the same subconscious themes in ever new reincarnations and on inarticulateness systematically cultivated in order to operate more effectively..."
   
   Given Mr. Koolhaas's journalism background (and assumed mastery of writing), I suspect he made the conscious decision to remain somewhat inaccessible to preserve his "lofty" image. While such a decision may be understandable, his brilliance as a writer often gets overshadowed by the sheer irritation of trying to understand him.
   
   Ultimately, "Delirious" proves itself to be a very intelligent synopsis---just as delirious and congested the themes Mr. Koolhaas puts forth. For the most part, it's a pleasure to read, and it also reflects the exhaustive research on Mr. Koolhaas's end. Much like Mr. Koolhaas's buildings, "Delirious" is on the cusp of being as grand as it intends to be.



2. through the exhaustive historiography of the phases of congestion coney island brought to manhattan, koolhaas provides a rather cynical view of the Grid as being an ulimatley neutral zoning system of constraining ideas that represent the continual decline of a phantastically realistic civilization, represented as mutated symbols of architecture in the "void" of repeated "pregnancies."
   
   it's really well written. funny. uses, like above, a somewhat inefficient vocabulary but remains in the same vein throughout. it is also a graphic design hubris consuming every page, even the left-justified text, showing off koolhaas's interpretation of the importance to combine scholarship and marketing.
   
   buy it. it's a very good book.



3. A very inventive concept of New York's "culture of congestion" and how people are affected by the architecture they create. It is heavily researched and exhaustive, and after pretty much the third page I agreed with his concept of NY being "totally fabricated by man". What could of been a fascinating article becomes a spastic, heavy-handed read with a sledgehammer effect to your brain. (However,for those of us reading it for school, there are plenty of pictures that fill up the almost devastatingly vast 300+pages quickly.) It will scramble your brain with its thousands of nearly bumper-stickerish statements ("It hides life." "The Mountain MUST become architecture.") written with pretentious glee. However, I believe an independent scientific study has concluded that when pretending to read this book on the train people around you will assume your IQ is 40% higher than truth.



4. koolhaas is a bit over-the-top for me, but this I think is is best work. it's worth checking out if only for the story of coney island. once you get past blisteringly pretentious phrases like "coney island is a fetal manhattan", you'll find it gloriously entertaining as both a narrative and theoretical work.



5. This is by far Koolhaas's most accessible work, as it is rooted so clearly in detail from the city's past. Further, the book is simply brilliant. His take on urban history is to Jane Jacobs what Socrates is to common sense. New York is a special case of modernism that sprang from a special constellation of poltiical and technological forces that collectively create a cultural "big-bang" at the turn of the century. Read it. Blow your mind.

4 comments about Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature.

1. Every once in awhile you find a book that becomes a new favorite. That happened recently with the arrival in our Livable Communities Coalition offices of this fabulous book by Doug Farr. Not long after receiving and beginning to read it, I had the pleasure of facilitating a workshop for the development of a "sustainability element" for the master plan for an intown Atlanta neighborhood. We are now organizing the outcome of that workshop for consideration by the neighborhood and the city. It feels as though Farr has handed me the answers to a final exam before I have to take the test.
   
   Farr's book combines passionate, compelling arguments for design reform with more than 100 pages of short essays. The essays explain how to implement sustainable urbanism and present case studies to illustrate his points. The book has given me a logical framework for organizing and connecting concepts and recommendations. And with just the right amount of detail - enough to get the point across, with where to go if you need more.
   
   Reduced to its most basic tenets, Farr's sustainable urbanism is walkable and transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performing buildings and infrastructure. As Farr puts it, high-performing infrastructure is an emerging field that combines many strains of reform: smart growth concerns about the financial burden imposed by new infrastructure for greenfield development; the New Urbanist's desire for humane, pedestrian-scaled infrastructure design; and the green building movement's focus on resource "greening" and consumption efficiencies.
   
   If smart growth, sustainable development or healthy communities interest you, and especially if you also work in the nonprofit or for-profit arenas for these causes, buy and read this book, and buy another and pass it on.



2. Doug Farr shows a comprehensive understanding of sustainability rarely seen in this movement. Too often different professions work on greening their product in isolation. While they may be doing wonderful designs they are not linking with other elements and professions to make these improvements complimentary and exponential. A LEED Platinum building built on farm land miles from the city center is not a comprehensive solution (and should really not be able to get a platinum rating.) Mr. Farr shows how to create an integrated approach to building where the "green" structure is consciously tied into the communities' transportation, utilities, culture, and work life creating a truly sustainable environment. Every public official and city planner should read this book.



3. Thank god for the current trend toward the generalization of textbooks.
   
   I don't mean generalization in the sense of broadening or watering-down of subject matter, but rather in writing: many more texts in relatively technical fields are being written so that they can be appreciated interdisciplinarily, but professionals in related and sometimes even slightly-unrelated fields, and other folks who may simply be interested in the topic. It's good marketing, too, of course - it opens up much larger markets both academically and professionally, and as long as the book contains enough authority to convince instructors and professionals to purchase (or trust) it, it's a win-win situation for the publisher and author as well as the audience.
   
   Douglas Farr's Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature (Wiley, 2008; foreword by Andres Duany) falls into the category of win-win for everyone. A very well-illustrated primer on the subject, it appeals to planners, architects, landscape designers, engineers and other folks interested in integrating their work into the larger natural environment.
   
   Duany - the great architect and urban planner whose work with Arquitectonica shaped what we think of as "Florida modern" and whose current firm, DPZ, has become a de facto leader of the New Urbanism movement - suggests that the problem with such books is often that they most often fail to engage the reader in any kind of dialogue by simply being too technical, or by failing to instruct by simply being too exhortative and dogmatic. Luckily, Farr gives more than enough data and instruction in the dozen linked essays and case studies to instruct - but never loses sight of the fact that he's along with us for the ride, not talking at us but at our elbow, learning along with us, sharing both successes and failures and an honest interest in building communities that complement, rather than exclude, the unmanufactured world.
   
   There's so much more here than just part one's "Case for Sustainable Urbanism." Other sections focus on the type of leadership and communication strategies most helpful in implementing both small and large-scale projects; technical tools and special techniques for community involvement are also explored extensively. Other chapters discuss the role of density, how to approach corridor situations, diagramming neighborhoods and the various types of housing that complement specific types of neighborhoods, "biophilia" - including everything from designing walkable streets to integrating wastewater management - and extensive essays on high-performance buildings and infrastructure. The last section of the book is given over to case studies, which both illustrate the preceding chapters with easy-to-understand real-world examples of sustainable success stories & offer solutions for those of us slogging through similar projects or at an impasse with a particular audience.
   
   I recommend the book without hesitation to any planner interested in integrating sustainable projects in urban infill or exurban growth environments, as well as other aficionados of new urbanism topics. It's an entertaining read AND a necessary reference; it will replace several books on the already-overloaded shelves of a number of planners I know.



4. Chicago City Planning Consultant Doug Farr has written a great book, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature.
   
   Farr combines new urbanism with green development in a clear and logical manner. He believes that "sustainable urbanism" is more than designing new Leed certified green buildings. It also includes the creation of green sustainable neighborhoods, and includes plans for sustainable urban development. He combines the strategies and principles of new urbanism with environmental improvements very well.
   
   Farr explains the evolution of the design reform movement. He outlines strategies on how to lead and promote sustainable urbanism.
   
   Doug Farr did an outstanding on form based codes for our neighboring communities of Bloomington and Normal, Illinois, and in developing plans that enhanced the environment while creating new urban space. I strongly recommend this book.
   
   Craig Hullinger AICP City of Peoria, Director, Economic Development

5 comments about S M L XL: Second Edition.

1. An acquaintance had a copy of this so I looked through it during a dinner party. Blah. Bah! It's full of facetious, egotistical monoliths (from the edifices to the book itself) that offer nothing but themselves to the rest of the urban experience. Le Corbusier of the late 20th century. Gawd, I hope Koolhaas doesn't take that as a compliment.



2. Realmente atendeu as expectativas. Um belíssimo livro em um bom preço e no prazo de entrega informado.



3. So much information that it took too long to get through it before most of it wasn't relevant any longer.



4. There's a terrific line in Breakfast at Tiffany's. George Peppard proudly hands neighbor Audrey Hepburn a copy of his just-published book. She has no idea what to do with it, so she puts it on a shelf next to a vase, backs away and says "Doesn't that look nice?"
   This book is a lot like that. A self-conciously designed object for the homes of style consumers who already have the right clothes and the B&B Italia furniture. A prop for the still-life they want to inhabit. If they ever got around to "reading" it, they'd discover to their great relief... it's NOT a book to be read in any strict classical sense.
   
   It also reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon where one associate asks another, "Read the first few pages of any good books lately?" The age of the short attention span is not going away any time soon. This hefty grey slab is easily recast as the shiny new headstone for verbalized intelligence.
   
   As Kracauer holds it, there's nothing wrong with framing a culture via fragments, but I have plenty of qualms about advancing one's own ideas that way. And I'm suspect of ideas that trowel on style in the abundance seen here. If I could believe Bruce Mau's intentions were more than just trying to look new, (This 'look' now permeates architecture publications) I'd have more respect for this, but it was obviously calculated as a totem of style and style-suffusion.
   
   For better or for worse, the book got noticed, the industry was distracted by the pretty surfaces and the ascent of Koolhaas is a done deal.
   If you want to actually READ a book full of Koolhaas' thoughts, skip this and get a copy of Delirious New York.



5. Possibly one of the many great books on architecture of today with plenty of references and clean graphics. A must have for all architecs or if you just want a wonderfully beautiful book for your home or office.

5 comments about Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.

1. Very well written. The book makes it very easy to understand why our towns and cities are set up like they are and why some are more livable than others.
   
   I purchased this book about five years ago and often still think about the concepts that are explained inside.
   
   I highly recommend it.



2. One of the best books I've read this year. Lots of things that I've
   noticed over the years about places I like and don't like were summarized
   and expounded upon. I hadn't quite realized the effect traffic
   engineering has had on city design.
   
   I felt that it really elucidated a lot of why people are really unhappy
   with their homes, lives, and communities.
   
   This book is extensively footnoted with lots of data to back up opinions.
   There is a huge bibliography into which I'm delving.
   
   However, where it ventures into the social and political realm, it is
   less effective and borders on being one-sided and polemic.
   In one example, the authors state that GM and others
   killed streetcars in 50 cities to get people to take cars rather
   than public transport. If you look into this a little deeper, you'll
   discover that it was probably more to promote their buses, and that the
   truth was a lot more complicated than that. Look up "Great American
   Streetcar Scandal" at wikipedia.



3. This book was recommended by a friend, and since Mr. Duany has been to Sarasota (where I now live) as a consultant, I decided to read it out of general interest. I was pleasantly surprised how readable it was, and many of the concepts of community that I was exposed to as a child were presented. And most importantly, it explained my preferences in leisure vacation travel for the convenient, comfortable community destinations--whether they be in large cities or in nearly rural locations. It is good reading for anyone who is or will be affected by growth or redevelopment.



4. I really must thank the authors for putting this together. I just finished Suburban Nation and I now know why I'm so stressed out all the time living in this "ticky-tacky" world (to borrow a line from the Weeds theme song).
   
   I wish I could do more to help combat sprawl at the moment. However, I'm keeping my eyes open all the time for what works, what doesn't work and I will continue to study this subject so that if and when I'm in a position to either make a move or be part of a decision making body, I will be able to intelligently make my opinion known.



5. It's no wonder that the suburbia style brought so much finance and - why not - mental damage to our everyday lives. We gave up living smartly for living in beautifulness.
   
   I believe that the sense of ownership prevails in suburbia much more than the sense of community. If you live in one for a long time, you probably know what I am talking about. Even if you don't, you might imagine how it feels to be in one.
   
   I lived in one for quite a long time and must recognize its benefits: peacefulness, plenty of space to stroll around and not much of noisy neighbors. Surely it has its advantages. I really admire how beautiful some neighborhoods really are and can remain when apart from the hassles of the inner city.
   
   But the need of taking my car to do absolutely everything from my basic needs just started to bother me as time went by and as my bills started to rise from such crazy oil consumption. One of the reasons why we are the biggest spenders in the entire planet is certainly the suburb predominance all over the country. Any doubt about it?
   
   This book is absolutely wonderful. It traces back to the WWII era when everything started out. Government has promoted all of the land development we see today and which is still in high demand, unfortunately. What once was a success formula to promote economic development is today a "cancer" that we have to live and deal with. We were imposed to a lifestyle that we didn't necessarily want to live, and we now pay high taxes just to keep this "monster" alive. As the book brightly states on its pages: suburbs were made for cars, not human beings.
   
   At some point in the book, authors state something that for me it is absolutely true: the archictecture is a science which is very undervalued in America. Obsolete and outdated zoning ordinances, traffic engineers more worried about the flow and the trucks that could pass on the streets and, most of all, community planning based on numbers and not aesthetics are the major rules when a new development takes place, leaving no room for smart development.
   
   Smart growth requires a lot of thinking, and for the long run, but thinking isn't really one of the best characteristics of land developers and home builders who have no expertise on archictecture issues, but only on how to make money fast and effortlessly. However, I have to recognize that it's not all their fault. Smart growth will also require a major cultural shift from a society which became used with such sprawl standards, whether living this way is beneficial or not.
   
   The book not only shows what went wrong with such aged growth policies, but also proposes solutions for building smarter towns and stimulates the creation of a community sense that today is just missing. Carefully written, is a reading that won't put you at sleep.

5 comments about The Timeless Way of Building.

1. The book was in fantastic condition. I received it very quickly as well. And so far has been a fantastic read. thank you!!



2. We are in the process of designing a home. This book was recommended as being good food for thought in planning a future home. It is not an easy read but well worth the effort. It,along with another from the same author,is required reading for college students in architecture. This book establishes the "language" for describing all the elements inside and outside buildings, neighborhoods, towns, etc. "A Pattern Language" is the sequel which explains in great detail how to apply this language. I would recommend both to anyone who is planning a future home - especially a custom-built home.



3. In many ways, The Timeless Way of Building remains the best book by Alexander, as it is easily accessible to all readers and provides a wonderful, thought provoking look into building traditions. Alexander searches for examples of a more humane architecture that took its proportions from the nature of building materials and the context in which these structures were built. The book is evocatively illustrated with black and white photos and thumbnail sketches. It has a look and feel like that of the Everyman's Library edition of Tao Te Ching, and in a similar way represents the building blocks of architecture through an insightful series of meditations on place. Alexander built on this series with A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment, and has since come out with a new series of books on The Nature of Order, but for many this is all you need to appreciate the sense of balance and order Christopher Alexander finds necessary in the built environment.



4. He is a very whimsical writer. Take time to browse through the 'Search Inside' to see if you really need this long introduction. For content you can actually work with, check out his other book: A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series).



5. One of the most intriguing books I have ever read, The Timeless Way of Building is one part complexity theory, one part architectural and city-planning theory, and one part spiritual treatise. It makes a great contribution to any class on Aesthetics, and resonates with people far and wide. I wish this book were in every library in America.

4 comments about The Image of the City.

1. Given that this book was written in the 1950's, it is still relevent to current urban design thinking. It must have been very innovative in the 1950's.
   
   Once the reader gets past the unusual layout of the book and the out of date language, there are many useful urban design concepts to be found in this little book.
   
   Pathways, boundaries, disconnects and nodes are all discussed from varying points of view, using notable USA cities as examples.
   
   One point of relevance is the statement that there is not one city in the USA that could be considered a great example of urban design (as stated in the 1950's). As an Australian, I could say the same of Australian cities. The Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane are terrible examples of urban sprawl. The north-south spread of Greater Sydney now covers almost 200 kilometres.
   
   The principles stated in this book are still relevant to urban designers today.



2. The urban setting is a composition of nodes, landmarks, paths, edges and districts, accorsing to Lynch. This physical summary of urban landscape may not be satisfactory for some. However, for others, including me, this book is a great help in forming a design perspective at the city level. It does not matter at all if you have just started forming your perspective or working on the final details. The book should be in your library, and the design guidelines should be in your mind, not only when designing a peace of urban space, but also when you are just wondering around.



3. This book describes mental maps obtained from residents in several cities such as Boston, Los Angeles and Jersey City. The mental maps were materialized on paper through an interview process and combined with maps from many individuals. And the results are surprising. Each map is a composite image of the city (and hence, the book's title) that reveals not only the character of the place, but gives you a feeling for it. In Boston for example, the streets are very disorganized, so people give directions by using landmarks almost exclusively. On the other hand, in Jersey City, with extremely uniform architecture, directions are given by street number and points of the compass. An unusual discovery concerns very long streets in Boston. They appear on the map with missing sections - these sections are totally invisible to the people interviewed. In many cases individuals were unaware that Washington street in one neighborhood is a continuation of Washington Street in another neighborhood. These blind spots affect how people move around, it affects the directions they give to others and it contributes or reinforces fears they may have about certain neighborhoods. The book moves from these maps and observations and tries to develop rules of thumb for urban design. People feel more comfortable and perhaps more anchored if they know where they are in space and in relation to visible landmarks. Some cities provide this comfort level more effectively than others - this book tries to find root causes. It's no wonder this is a classic.



4. Kevin Lynch descibes the visual attributes of cities and towns, paying special attention to how we find our way around, how we build a mental image of these places. It is not only relevant to city dwellers, but to anyone interested in the subject of creating communities, real or virtual. A truly wonderful book, with lots of insightful drawings and images. Highly recommended.

5 comments about The Works: Anatomy of a City.

1. The work that goes into designing, developing, and maintaining an infrastructure for a city like New York is perhaps one of the greatest feats on mankind. The amazing part of it all is that the detail, the science, the engineering genius, and the reliability of all things that keep a city running go relatively unnoticed to the uncurious. But if you are the type that has often wondered how a city really works, how power is supplied, how water is brought in and sewage brought out, how communication and transportation systems are organized, then this is the book for you. The great thing about this book is that it is readable for ages 9 and up. Great illustrations, graphs, diagrams, and easy to read explainations keeps this book light and breezy as a Richard Scarry book. I loved it and highly recommend it.



2. This book is filled with how everything in the New York City infrastructure works. EVERYTHING!!



3. Induldge your inner nerd and buy this book. The sections are well laid out with excellent and clear graphics and the sections are small enough that you (or your visitors) can either take one bite at a time or just browse through the thing till you find something that interests you (and you will). Describes detail in a way that's accessable to everyone and without getting tedious. My wait at the dentist's office would fly by with something like this to while away the time.



4. This is an awesome book for anyone who ever questions "How?"
   
   In the similar vein of "How does it work?" This is simply the book of "How does New York City work?".
   
   I'll never forget a live video/music piece on Sesame Street while I was growing up entitled "Where does the trash go?".
   
   This book answers that question and so many more! From the sewer system to the stop lights and traffic flow. Anything most of us have ever wondered about, regarding the day to day minutia of city, is in this book.
   
   This is a book for anyone from 9 to 90 and beyond.
   
   Enjoy it, and savor it. Share it, and understand it.



5. If you want to know about how New York City works, this book is worth reading. It's well-researched and well-written. Kate Ascher is a very smart woman and her book is a real achievement.