This collection of twenty-one essays, written by colleagues and former students of the architectural historian Spiro Kostof (1936-1991), presents case studies on Kostof's model of urban forms and fabrics. The essays are remarkably diverse: the range includes pre-Columbian Inca settlements, fourteenth-century Cairo, nineteenth-century New Orleans, and twentieth-century Tokyo. Focusing on individual streets around the world and from different historical periods, the collection is an inviting overview of the street as an urban institution.

The theme of the volume is that the street presents itself as the basic structuring device of a city's form and also as the locus of its civilization. Each essay is a detailed investigation of a single urban street with unique historical conditions. The authors' shared concern regarding anthropological, political, and technical aspects of street making coalesce into a critical discourse on urban space. A fitting tribute to Spiro Kostof, this collection will be greatly admired by scholars and general readers alike.

ESSAYS BY:
Annmarie Adams Nezar AlSayyad
Eleni Bastéa
Charles Burroughs Greg Castillo
Zeynep Çelik
Joan Draper
Diane Favro
Paul Groth
Heng Chye Kiang
Krystyna von Henneburg
Richard Ingersoll
Richard Longstreth
Jean-Pierre Protzen
John Howland Rowe
Deborah Robbins
Bruce Thomas
Stephen Tobriner
Marc Treib
Dell Upton
Gwendolyn Wright
Fikret K. Yegül

Zeynep Çelik is Associate Professor of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Diane Favro is Associate Professor of Architecture, University of California, Los Angeles. Richard Ingersoll is Associate Professor of Architecture, Rice University.

"Ambitious in scope, the volume provides what might be called a scholar's tour of great thoroughfares across the globe and through the ages."—Nancy Levinson, Architectural Record

"[An] excellent set of essays. . . . Well written and well illustrated, the volume makes a compelling plea for understanding and preserving urban difference."—A. J. Wharton, Choice

"[The authors] reflect a broad perspective of the street as an ongoing process influenced directly and indirectly by users of myriad social, political, economic, and ethnic differences."—Progressive Architecture

"A fascinating book. What might have been part of the taken-for-granted, world streets as critical public spaces are rightly being given renewed and more critical attention by urbanists. . . . Each chapter, written by a former pupil of Kostof, presents a critique of a major street (or streets) in cities drawn across time as much as space and culture. As vignettes, they provide poignant reminders of the meanings and lives of streets in different contexts."—Urban Studies

"These essays promote the consideration of the life and construction of streets and provide a crucial armature through which to connect architecture, urban planning politics, and urban life. Each essay is brief and condensed with individual pieces sticking in the mind for a variety of reasons. . . . The depth of detailed scholarship makes Streets a book that will be referred to for a long time."—Building Design (London)

"An admirable collection. . . . A book one will repeatedly pick up, reading an essay here and there on a city with which one is familiar or eager to know better. Everyone will find his or her own personal favorites."—Town Planning Review

"The general combination of interesting histories and clear, accessible writing produces a thoroughly enjoyable, as well as interesting, tour of the world."—Mark Hutchinson, London Quarterly