The Experience of Place: A New Way of Looking at and Dealing with our Radically Changing Cities and Countryside

by Tony Hiss

Why do some places—the concourse of Grand Central Terminal or a small farm or even the corner of a skyscraper—affect us so mysteriously and yet so forcefully? What tiny changes in our everyday environments can radically alter the quality of our daily lives? The Experience of Place offers an innovative and delightfully readable proposal for new ways of planning, building, and managing our most immediate and overlooked surroundings.

Genres: Nonfiction, Urban Planning, Sociology, Psychology, Geography, History, Architecture

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 1990

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The physical experience of place is in inescapable phenomenon. Yes, the cognition of such experiences is often ignored, suppressed or mis-attributed. Hiss's book is an attempt to call our attention back to these sensational experiences, both for our individuals' sake and for the benefit of the public at large.

Examining the differential experiences of the city and countryside, the book culminates in advocating for a 'regional approach' to planning. An idea that is much more comprehensive than I am willing to digest in one sitting but enticing enough to warrant further exploration. Much of the idea revolves around creating public value and organizing development patterns in ways that create healthy natural, social, economic and political places that feed our underlying biological inclinations.

While planners and developers have much to gain (if they take the time to concern themselves with a scale beyond the myopic profit driven motive), Hiss offers the individual reader and equally refreshing experience. Exploring what he labels simultaneous perception, the author calls readers' attention to the everyday phenomenons that are all too often taken for granted. Posing, and answering questions such as why some places seem inviting and bustling while others are uncomfortable and go unused.

I have often tried to explain the experience of place and while Hiss doesn't do it entirely, the book reaffirms for me that these feelings are not simply of my own creation but may have deeper physiological explanations.

[Ken The Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Hiss is one of my favorite writers of non-fiction - right up there with Rebecca Solnit. His book In motion: The Experience of Travel, is one of the best that I've ever read, and has a place on my permanent bookshelf.

Although The Experience of Place is a bit dated (I'm finally reading it 35 years after it was published), Tony's research, writing and introspection is just top-rate. He appropriately cites Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language for the outsized influence that it has on planners everywhere, and appropriately credits John Falk for that ecologist's research pointing out humans' overwhelming preference for viewing "the savannah scene". Read this if you want to learn more about earlier attempts at finding a balance between our push for development vs. our love of natural settings.

[Jeff Stade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of lesser-repeated anecdotes about the state of our cities, our countryside, and where those places meet. Hiss frequently cited examples of urban planning in the late 1980s. Phrases like ‘urban sprawl’ or ‘global warming’ seemed just out of reach, but you can see these ideas beginning to take on newfound importance. As a Pennsylvania resident, I found it especially fascinating to learn about the Market Street Marshalls (a business-group-led street-cleaning group) and a protest of a thousand Amish for a new ‘superhighway’ proposal that would have sliced through the Amish countryside. I dug into the NY Times archives and found neither the Marshalls nor the superhighway exists today.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Brit who does not understand very much about the American planning system there was some very interesting albeit fairly outdated parts to this book which provided some interesting insight. A few sections did drag on a little but I thought the parts about German migrants hanging out in train stations and the last farm in New York were extremely insightful.

[Eric Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting passages about Olmsted, partnership landscapes, and development that preserves the character of the places where we live.

[Birthe Lauchengco]

A book that continues to stand out in my mind from a class with one of my favorite college professors, John Stilgoe.

[Lucid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hiss’s unique contribution in The Experience of Place is his emphasis on individuals’ firsthand encounters with their everyday built environments, and how taking this specific view of such environments can alter how communities perceive their relationships to the natural world, to other communities, and to members of their own communities. He proposes that thoughtfully-planned built-environments fundamentally expand their users’ consideration from one or two pragmatic functions to a range of possible uses (social, emotional, and imaginative). Throughout the book, in the examples Hiss uses to support his argument, he insists on the primacy of the experience of individuals who routinely pass through familiar built environments. He has a special gift for evoking places in such a way that his personal attachments are absent, leaving just the perceptions prompted by their material features and layout. He lets spaces affect him as he traverses them, not pausing to focus on any one thing long, yet registering his responses as they occur. Hiss argues that spaces designed to intrigue and attract users (through a range of techniques that vary according to the larger social and geographical context) yield qualitatively different responses than do spaces designed from strictly commercial or utilitarian perspectives. The book is about discovering which types of built-environments produce optimal outcomes, both concrete and intangible, for the people who live and work in and around them, and explaining how planners are creating such spaces. Hiss describes efforts to collect and interpret data on human attitudes toward their surroundings, explains historical trends in American sprawl and development, and cites many insightful passages from older works on creating communal spaces that promote the wellbeing of the people who use them.

[Edipalma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one seems timely again (or is that still?) How can we build without
desecrating the landscape, for instance. I read this a long time back, when it first came out and the one part I remember dealt with a housing
development in Vermont. It didn't take up much room, but was planned so
as to create minimal disturbance in the landscape, giving each house
both privacy and community. Not a bad goal for now, though what we appear to need are more cities and villages and few suburbs...perhaps he'll write a new book, but until he does, if you're interested in land use and
doing away with the mall-blight ugliness we've lumbered ourselves with you'll find this an interesting read.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pleasant and informative read about some topics in geography that I enjoy– urban and landscape planning, sense of place, thoughtful and responsible development. I particularly enjoyed the reflections on the charm of urban landscapes that tap into a sense of awe and channel inner human instincts about perception and movement. I also appreciated encountering examples from areas in New England with which I am familiar about how to balance development with preservation of beautiful working landscapes. Even though the book is now somewhat dated, and some of its hopes have not fully come to fruition, I valued it as a reminder to maintain and enhance my own sense of connection to place.

[Beth Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up somewhere for 50 cents and wasn't sure about it (would it be out-moded?) and was pleasantly surprised. Learned new things, found other things I wanted to learn more about (Mary Cassatt's brother was a PA railroad president, and designed some great innovations for the rails)...the only section that was sort of adorable was a part about the importance of designing multiple map views so an understanding of the vision of development on a space can be seen...well, thank goodness for GIS and computers. Recommended, either way.

[Karla Huebner]

I'm baffled that it took me forever to finish reading this, as it's really quite a wonderful and enjoyable book dealing with our sense of place and looks at ways architects, urban planners, ecologists, and so forth can create sustainable, appealing community--it considers urban spaces, suburban and village, rural; parks, office buildings, you-name-it. I plan to include reading(s) from it in my Modern Architecture course next fall.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Urban/rural planning that supports growth and quality of life. Oh the strip malls never should have come into existence. At times it seemed a bit dated yet many of the concepts in this book are still ignored by surburuban sprawls and disappearing farmland. We still haven't smartened up. We really can do better.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using New York City locales as examples, the author discusses how our working environment (buildings, parks, streets, offices) affect us physically and psychologically. I was especially taken with the ideas about how much space people need around themselves while conversing. The book is a bit dated now, but his conclusions are still valid.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a powerful examination of our relationship with the landscape. The one statement that really stuck with me: "...Western Europeans and Americans have been carrying around with them as part of their mental baggage a deeply felt and despairing assumption that progress demands degraded surroundings."

[Sam Finger · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly great book about place and includes s many loved places--Grand Central Station, Times Square, farm country, parks. The prose is breathtaking too. I studied this in class and it's my favorite all semester.

[Sam Finger · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is absolutely awesome. I read it for my class and I love it. The author knows so much and says it so clearly. Great book, with deep ideas. Gave me a new appreciation of all the places I know and love.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fabulous ideas. I learned a lot from this book (for example, how the opening to a park is designed strongly determines whether passers-by go into the park) but the writing was uninspired. I hate academic work that is hard to read! Make it compelling!

[christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of my favorite books from college. it taught me to see the world in a whole new way.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book on place that's ever been written in this country. Looking forward to his new book next!

[Todd Swifter · Rating 5 out of 5]

great great book on place

[Erik Tanouye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts strong, then is kind of aimless and dated.

[karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 1: Experiencing Cities (p.3-101)