TEXT: Image of the City, Kevin Lynch

Includes a comparison of three cities (Boston, Jersey City, Los Angeles) using unconventional methods of mapping and survey regarding how people extract their surroundings through identity.

The image of the city is a composite of all the senses in motion, according to Lynch. These senses will be based on legibility and environment (identity, structure, meaning). Lynch serves to uncover the role of form in the city—“it is taken for granted that an actual design form should be used to reinforce meaning, and not to negate it”

ELEMENTS OF THE CITY:

• PATHS: channels along which the observer moves. The predominant organizing elements of their city image- people observe their city while moving through it.
• While continuity is both desired and expected in paths, there is a directional quality as well. This can be done through gradient—regular change in some quality which is cumulative in one direction (most frequently sensed gradients are topographic or use in intensity). A prolonged curve is also a gradient.
• Paths with clear and well known origins and destinations had stronger identities, helped tie the city together, and gave the observer a sense of his bearings whenever he crossed them.
• Identity: “Where major paths lacked identity or were easily confused one for the other, the entire city image was in difficulty”
• EDGES: not to be considered as paths—linear breaks in continuity.
• While continuity and visibility are crucial, strong edges are not necessarily impenetrable. Edges can also serve as uniting seams, rather than isolating barriers.
• Example: Charles Street in Boston carries heavy traffic but also contains the local service stores and special activities associate with Beacon Hill—it pulls the residents together by attracting them to itself.
• DISTRICTS: two-dimensional extents of the city which are recognizable as having some common identifying character.
• NODES: points or strategic spots in the city—they may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another. Also called cores.
• LANDMARKS: another type of point reference—usually a rather simply defined physical object. Symbolize a constant direction.

**The image of the city can shift its type with difference circumstances of viewing.

“When we consider more than one path, then the path intersection becomes vital since it is the point of decision” “Because decisions must be made at junctions, people heighten their attention at such places and perceive nearby elements with more than normal clarity—elements located at junctions may automatically be assumed to derive special prominence from their location”

QUALITIES OF FORM

• Singularity
• Form simplicity
• Continuity
• Dominance
• Clarity of joint
• Directional differentiation
• Visual scope
• Motion awareness
• Time series
• Names and meanings