Streets for People: A Primer for Americans (Hardcover)

by Bernard Rudofsky (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
4to, brown cloth. 351 pp, 216 illustrations (8 in color), index.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: DoubleDay; 1ST edition (March 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385042310
• ISBN-13: 978-0385042314
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,110,708 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Liked the book, but he is such a Euro-snob., June 25, 2006

By	Brian Torri "Urban Planner and general book l... (Arlington Heights, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rudofsky wrote the book at the height of the first huge wave of emirgration to the suburbs, when cities were of nearly the least interest to people and the suburbs and their malls were where it was at. Now, years later, we have suburbs that are scrambling to rebuild themselves like cities and malls that have fallen prey to even bigger malls with more drawing power/gravity to pull in more shoppers. There is even a website called deadmalls.com to document the dead malls in America, the most famous of which is the long, long dead Dixie Mall in Harvey, Illinois, featured in the movie "The Blues Brothers".

I wonder what Rudofsky would think of Transit Oriented Development or The New Urbanism, just to name a few. He might well applaud them and say that he told us so. I wonder if he might even let someone drag out of him any grudging acceptance whatsoever that good urban design might exist in America, or if he might even expand his approval to speak up for affordable housing at all income levels, thereby expanding that label's appeal. Now, it just means Low Income Housing and Those People.

Given the times in which he wrote this book, the early to middle 1960s, I can somewhat forgive him for saying, "Those God-awful, Philistine Americans, they don't know the beauty of Europe". However, I think that the market has determined what people can and cannot take from their suburbs, and they are starting to demand better urban design based on the cost of doing the same old things in areas that are necessarily 40 miles away from the central city, if not further.

I may criticize this book somewhat, but let me tell you this: This book made me want to be a city planner, a dream I have made come true, when I read this book at the tender age of 14 or 15. I picked this book up and could not put it down. My library in my small town of Jackson, Michigan, had a copy and I either checked it out or read it numerous times. I think I even called Mrs. Rudofsky to offer my condolences after calling information for his number or looking it up on microfiche (oh, those pre-Internet/Mosaic/Netscape days!). I was so isolated in the dream that this book started that I didn't even know urban planning existed as a profession, much less that I could aspire to it.

In the end, take this book with a grain of salt, understand the author's biases and the times in which it was written. It may well have started an urban design revolution that many recent books in that field have continued.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great lessons for American urban planners, December 2, 2006

By	Blue "in Washington" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Streets for People a Primer for Americans (Paperback)

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Great writing and terrific illustrations. It is not only a wonderful reference book on architecture, history and urban life, it is the perfect travel book. Reading it before going overseas for the first time was the best preparation I had for appreciating other world architecture and history. Visiting people-friendly streets and public places inevitably leads the traveler to some of the most interesting spots in the world. It was Rudofsky's rhapsodic writing about Bologna, for example, that took me there and hooked me for life on that wonderful city.
Rudofsky's passion for pedestrian-centric cities is gradually seeping into the consciouness of U.S. urban planners. What a huge improvement in American urban living there could be if the public insisted that developers go back to the basics that Rudofsky preaches when building public buildings and private residences.
PS--I was devastated when my original copy of this book finally fell apart from years of use--but was thrilled to find that it was still in print and available through Amazon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a book about Universal's "City Walk", September 30, 2004

By	Leo Peter (Trieste) - See all my reviews

Another beautifully illustrated book by Bernard Rudofsky (author of "Architecture without Architects", still in print), this time with ample commentary detailing the significance of pedestrian culture across the globe. One wonders whether Victor Gruen and Rudofsky personally knew each other and, if so, who was a greater advocate of street culture. I myself rarely walk anywhere, but, when I do, their appreciation of its pleasures informs every moment.