The American Vitruvius: An Architects' Handbook of Urban Design

by Werner Hegemann, Elbert Peets, Christiane Crasemann Collins (Introduction)

This atlas of architectural design advocates rational as well as humanistic principles in the development of the urban environment. Drawing upon the ideals that inspired the great Roman architect, it promotes the Vitruvian maxims of longevity, beauty, and commodity. It also defines the thinking behind modern American city planning.
First published in 1922, The American Vitruvius arose from a collaboration between two students of American urbanism. Werner Hegemann, an urban planner, and Elbert Peets, a graduate of Harvard's School of Landscape Architecture, selected more than 1,200 plans, elevations, and perspective views. Their choices depict a tremendous variety of European and American structures dating from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Ranging from Rome's vast Piazza San Pietro to modest German and English garden suburbs, this volume explores all manner of urban design, including American college campuses, parks, and cemeteries; L'Enfant's plan of Washington, DC; and other civic centers.
Design Book Review hailed this classic as "the most complete single-volume survey of canonical cases of urbanism," offering "a scintillating collection of uncommon and forgotten designs." An essential reference for every architect and student of architecture, this affordable edition is of particular value in light of the current New Urbanism trend.

Genres: Architecture, Cities

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2010