Architwenuee, Planning THE IMAGE OF THE CITY Kevin Lynch ‘What does the city’s form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city’s image move vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr, Lyneh, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formu: Jates a new criterion = niegeaiility—and shows its potential value ax 1 guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. ‘The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book, Whet the reviewers have said: = Kevin Lynch has come up with a readable, tautly organized, authoritative volume that may prove as important to city building as Camillo Site's The Art of Building Cities — Architectural Forum “City planners and urban designers everywhere will be taking account of his work for years to come . . . The importance of this book in the terature of urbanism is obvious. . . . we have lacked u theary of the city's visual perception based on objective eriteria. For sume. strange reason, in the period dating from the late 19th Century in Germany and lasting until Lynch's efforts . . . there was no experimentation in the matter of how cities are perceived, All of us can be grateful for the resumption of this line of thought. The impact of this volume should ‘be enormous.” —Leonard K, Eaton, Progresrive Architecture “Thit email and readable book maker one of the mort important modem ceontributions #0 large-scale design theory . . . To understand Lynch's audasity, one must go back to 1953, the year when he began his studies in perception with a travel period in Italy. This was several vears before al the ‘urtun design’ conferencer, before the coining ofthe Phe, und at a time when respectable planners were concerned with anything but the exploration of urban form, It took a rebellious young teacher .. ‘ved by the iaspiration of F. L. Weight (his sometime mentor), te tam the tables on thirty years of planners’ neglect.” — David A. Crane, Journal of the American Institute of Plannars Wh) THE MIT press aKevin Lynch The Image of the City The M.LT. Press jute of Technology 5, and London, EnglandPuuicaTion oF Tae Jousr Cenven ron Uneaw Srutes This book is one of a series published under the anspices of the Joint Center for Urban Stndies, « cooperative venture of the Massachusetts Instirnse of Technology and Harvard University. The Joint Censer was founded in 1959 t0 or- ‘ganize and encourage research on urban and regional prob Jems. Participants have included scholars from the fields of anthropology, architecture, business, city planning, econon ics, education, engineering, history, lew, phitosophy, political science, and sociology. The findings and conclusions of this book are, az with all Joint Genter publications, solely the responsibility of the author. Copyright © 1960 by the Massachusetts Institute af Technology and the President and Fellows of Hacvaed College Reensieth Printing. 1990 ISBN 0 262 12004 6 (hacdeover) ISBN 0 262 62001 < (paperback) Libeary of Congress Catalog Card No: 60-7362 Printed in the United States af America PREFACE This vot is abou the look of cites and wheter eis look is of any importance, and whether ic can be changed. The ‘urban landscape, among its many cole, is also something co be seen, to be remembered, and co delight in. Giving visual form co the city isa special kind of design problem, and a rather new one ac cha. In the course of examining this new problem, the book looks ac three American cites: Boson, Jersey City, and Los Angeles. Ie suggests a method whereby we might begin 10 deal with visual form ae the urban scale, and offers some first principles of city desiga, ‘The work chat lies behind this study was done under the direction of Professor Gyorgy Kepes and myself at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies of the Massachuserss Institute fof Technology. It was generously supported over several years by funds from che Rockefeller Foundation. The book itself is being published as one of a series of volumes of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of che Massachusets Insticute of Technology and Harvard University, an agency which has grown out of the urban research activities of these two insticuions ‘As in any intellectual work, che content derives from many sources, diffcule co «race. Several rescarch associates contributed dicectly w the development of this study: David Crane, Bernard