Tuesday, October 9, 2001. THE MONDAY SCHEDULE OBSERVED.

Read, in Girouard,
Chapter 15: America and the Birth of the Skyscraper pp. 301 - 324

There are several points we'll want to discuss. First we'll need to think about what enables skyscrapers from a technological point of view. Here, we're concerned not only with the technology of building, but also with the impact of emerging technologies (the plural is deliberate) which enhance opportunities for urbanism at this scale. Second, we'll need to think about factors (again, the plural is deliberate) which make skyscrapers desirable as well as possible. Just because one can do something is no guarantee that one will do something. Finally we'll need to think about the rate of change in the city of the skyscraper era. What does this do to a sense of rootedness and permanence? To fully appreciate this, you'll need to watch picture captions, which on occasion give some sense of how long the building endured between construction and demolition.

Read, in Girouard,
Chapter 16: Cities Round the World, pp. 325 - 342
Chapter 17: Babylon or Jerusalem, pp. 343 - 375
Epilogue pp. 377 - 382

With these chapters we conclude our brief survey of what constitutes a city and urbanism. The first of these looks to ways in which urban areas in different countries imitate each other in certain ways, yet retain individual character in others. The second hearkens back to something I discussed in the first week of the semester, a cultural ambivalence about cities. Are they "heavenly" or "hellish" places? As we see, Americans are not the only ones to have conflicting attitudes about urban life.

In the Epilogue Girouard looks into his crystal ball and predicts something of the city's future. He also speaks to his own attitudes towards urban living.

It will be our privilege to welcome a group of ten international students visiting with us this day. I have asked them to come to us and share their perceptions about their particular cities and how they differ from American cities as they have encountered them. I'm also asking them to tell us little about whether they think of cities as desirable or undesirable environments, and why. Here's a list of the places they represent:

I know you'll make them welcome and come primed with questions and observations of your own.