Urban Squares as Places, Links and Displays

Jon Lang is an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia where he headed the School of Architecture from 1998 to 2004. He is also the director for urban design of ERG/Environmental Research Group Inc. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born in Kolkata, India he received his early education in that city and in Kalimpong. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a doctorate from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1990, heading its Urban Design Program in the 1980s, before settling in Australia. He has authored books on urban design, architecture in India, the relationship between people and the built environment and on architectural theory. He has served on international urban design juries and worked as a consultant throughout much of Asia as well as the United States and Latin America. He received the Reid and Malik Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) in 2011.Nancy Marshall is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia where she was Associate Dean/Education from 2009 to 2013. She has taught theory and practice in the Planning Program there since 2004 and won the UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007. Born and raised in Calgary Canada, she received her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Calgary and her PhD from the University of New South Wales. Prior to coming to Australia she worked as a planning consultant in Canada specializing in public involvement in urban planning and design. Her work as a planner at the local government level included efforts to more efficiently deliver high quality parks and civic spaces. She has been greatly involved in the affairs of planning – serving as a national, senior editor of the Canadian Institute of Planning’s journal Plan Canada from 1997 to 2002 and a member of Calgary’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board from 1994 to 1997. She is currently a corporate member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

• Prologue: The Concern Part 1: Introduction 1. Experiencing Public Open Spaces2. Squares as Places, Links and Displays3. Sociocultural ConsiderationsPart 2: Types of Urban Squares and their Design 4. Public, Quasi-public and Semi-public Squares5. Types based on Instrumental Functions: 6. Types based on Size7. Types based on Degree of Enclosure 8. Types based on Configurations9. Types based on Internal Designs10. Types based on Symbolic Functions11. Types based on Design ParadigmsPart 3: Learning from Case Studies12. A Score of Case Studies Rittenhouse House Square, Philadelphia Sproul Plaza, University of California at Berkeley Paley Park, New York Cours Honoréd-Estiennne d’Orves, Marseille La Place des Terreaux, Lyon Federation Square, Melbourne Paternoster Square, London Robson Square, Vancouver Olympic Plaza, Calgary Trafalgar Square, London The Capitol Square, Chandigarh Oxford Square, Sydney Pershing Square, Los Angeles Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam The Guggenheim Museum forecourt, Bilbao North and South Shanghai Railway Station Squares, Shanghai Jacob K. Javits Federal Building Plaza, New York Granary Square, London Times Square, New York Piazza San Marco, Venice Part 4: What Works and What Doesn’t Work13. The Qualities of Lively Urban Squares14. The Qualities of Quiet Urban SquaresEpilogue

"El libro pasa revista a muchos casos de plazas urbanas significativas en cuanto al diseño y la vida urbana de las ciudades a nivel mundial, como la de San Marcos, en Venecia (2017, pp. 240-244), que puede considerarse para el lector geógrafo, urbanista, arquitecto, ingeniero, etcétera, como una especie de guía para entender el papel de las plazas urbanas hoy e, incluso, para desarrollar posteriores investigaciones en este campo de estudio." —Federico Camerin, Investigaciones Geográficas, April 2019"The book reviews many cases of urban squares in terms of design and life of cities around the world, such as the of San Marcos, in Venice, which can be considered for the geographer reader, urban planner, architect, engineer, etc., as a kind of guide to understand the role of urban spaces today, and even to develop further research in this field of study." —Federico Camerin, Investigaciones Geográficas, April 2019