The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards

(Paperback)

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Description

First built in Europe and grandly imported to the US in the mid-19th century, the classic multiway boulevard has been in decline for many years, victim of a narrowly focused approach to street design that views unencumbered vehicular traffic flow as the highest priority. The American preoccupation with destination and speed has made multiway boulevards increasingly rare as artifacts of the urban landscape. This book reintroduces the boulevard, tree-lined and with separate realms for through traffic and for slow-paced vehicular-pedestrian movement, as an important and often crucial feature of both historic and contemporary cities. It presents more than 50 boulevards - as varied as Avenue Montaigne, in Paris; C. G. Road, in Ahmedabad, India; and The Esplanade, in Chico, California - celebrating their usefulness and beauty. It discusses their history and evolution, the misconceptions that led to their near-demise in the US, and their potential as a modern street type. Based on wide research, The Boulevard Book examines the safety of these streets and offers design guidelines for professionals, scholars, and community decision makers. Extensive plans, cross sections, and perspective drawings permit visual comparisons. The book shows how multiway boulevards respond to many issues that are central to urban life, including livability, mobility, safety, interest, economic opportunity, mass transit, and open space.

Reviews

The immense amount of research, together with the authors' enthusiasm...makes The Boulevard Book an authoritative text.

Author Bio

Allan B. Jacobs is Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Elizabeth Macdonald is Assistant Professor in Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley. Yodan Rofe is Head of the City Planning Section in the Chief Architects Office of the Ministry of Construction and Housing in Jerusalem.