The Modern Metropolis: Its Origins, Growth, Characteristics, and Planning: Selected Essays of Hans Blumenfield [Paperback]

The Modern Metropolis is an amazing book; amazing even when it is conceded that in effect it took twenty-five years to produce. It consists of thirty-three articles, which span its author's American professional career from 1943 to the present day. Some of them...were long ago established as classics. Others first appeared in obscurer places, or are published here for the first time. Bound together into one book, they give for the first time a true picture of the extraordinary intellectual range of Hans Blumenfeld, establishing him definitely as one of the giants of twentieth-century urban planning.

"Today we must regain, by conscious effort, the essential unity of function and form. It is not a question of 'city beautiful.' It is a question of discovering the forms that will most clearly give expression to the function of our cities, as the form of the old towns reflected their way of living. The social life of men is the specific side of nature that the city builder's art reflects; as Albrecht Dürer put it: 'For, verily, art is inherent in nature; he who can extract it therefrom will hold it."" Hans Blumenfeld

Hans Blumenfeld enjoys the highest reputation in the field of urban planning. It is testimony to his professional standing that almost every serious book on town planning makes reference to his work. At the same time his writing is clear and completely free from jargon. Hans Blumenfeld can handle the most complex issues of planningfrom traffic to residential densities to locational theoryutilizing a light, captivating prose that makes his subject understandable to virtually any reader. His essays are an invaluable store of urban planning knowledge.

The purpose of this collection is to present a clear, comprehensible, and highly readable book on the growth of modern cities and their planning. The author's acknowledged expertisl