What Time is this Place?

For anyone interested in the urban landscape, this study of the ways that a sense of time is expressed (intentionally or inadvertently) within the built environment is a self-recommending classic. Kevin Lynch was an influential thinker in these matters, and this was his own favorite among his works; it is an enjoyable and stimulating read. I give it four instead of five stars for two reasons. First: Although Lynch frequently uses excellent examples to help us visualize what he is talking about, there are places where he simply speculates in a string of abstractions, and it becomes difficult to understand how what he is recommending would work. Second: The book is weak on economics, and I don't think economics can be left entirely out of the discussion. Many of Lynch's design ideas are interesting, pleasing, thoughtful, and cutting-edge. But they cost money, and even when they would not cost that much extra, they require a certain sensitivity.

I worked in commercial real estate for several years; developers are not a sensitive lot. I can tell you what happens when, fully armed with a portfolio of terrific examples, you try talking to developers about interesting, pleasing, thoughtful, and cutting-edge designs for their planned gas stations and strip malls. One in a hundred will be interested (and I love that one person). The other 99 just want to put up their gas station or strip mall on the cheap and start making some money; they don't give a flip what it looks like. When better building actually occurs, it is usually because a well-off community and its planning commission have design guidelines in place, and can hold developers' feet to the fire. So the rich get prettier, greener, more expressive architecture, and the rest of us get the usual thing. This is so far from what a democratic thinker like Kevin Lynch was about; he wanted good design to be for everyone, and not only in the occasional case of a civic or showcase-type building. But dumbing-down is the reality of the marketplace. ( )