Urban Lessons of the Venetian Squares

The first part of the book is both an homage to the nature and appeal of the squares of Venice and an analysis of their physical qualities in urbanistic terms.

The Venetian settings were chosen for their freedom from auto traffic, streets, or peculiarities of topography. The narrative then takes those insights and applies them in a corresponding examination of a wide variety of modern-day urban spaces in America, to determine which are being emulated today and which less so.

As a test case of sorts to help inform the successes and failings of modern urban open space, a useful strategy would be to somehow remove the cars and streets from the equation: not as a realistic goal for urbanism today, but as a lens through which to identify a family of attributes that could realistically contribute to successful urban places. The only city in the Western world where this condition actually prevails in reality is Venice, Italy. Alone among the Old World’s cities and towns that are the USA’s urban patrimony, Venice has the unique distinction of being a truly pedestrian urban environment. With this in mind, it seems reasonable to see if Venice could call across the centuries with some insights for modern-day urbanism.