Squares, to be great, rely on having an attitude about entries,exits, likely paths, edges, and surfaces; like typefaces, they consider history and require repeated visits. Squares are a subject rich and fascinating for everyone concerned with their visual environment. Bob Gatje understands them.

Choosing forty great squares of the United States and western Europe, architect Robert F.Gatje has assembled the essentiat information and dimensional data with iLLustrations in fuLL coLor of ground plans at the scale of 1:1000, providing in one place comparative descriptions of urban spaces that every architect, urban planner, environmental designer, and informed traveler should know. Great PubLic Squares builds on the three classic books in the fieLd: Camil.to Sitte's The Design of Cities [1889],which critiqued the quality of urban planning in the Europe of his day with a hundred-pLus small plans of the squares he Liked; Hegemann & Peets's CivicArt:The American Vitruvius [1922}, recently reissued,which brought Sitte's plans to the United States;and Town and Square (1959} by Paul Zucker, a prolific writer, born in Germany, who taught in New York City. Gatje brings to the tradition new insights and striking computer-generated graphics: all the plans use the same visual Language and scale so that they can be easily compared. Gatje's drawings are many times the size of Sitte's, which aLLows him to give much more information about the squares,and they are so clear that anyone can find his or her bearings. Historical views of the squares add perspective, and coLorfuL photographs of the squares in use today bring the spaces to vivid Life.

Each entry provides a summary of data Idimensions of the square, area, proportions of the sides, height to the skyline, date of construction),and a concise text gives a brief history, describes what makes the square work, and identifies its special features.

The squares are arranged by country in rough chronoLogiCaL order. Since the use of outdoor space developed first in warmer climates land continues to be best used there}, the List begins with and is dominated by twenty ItaLian squares; there are also two each from Germany and the Czech RepubLic,one from Greece, and five from France. Spain and Portugal each provide one, and there are four from Britain and four in the United States: Boston's Louisburg Square, New York's RockefeLLer Center,PortLand's Pioneer Square, and Santa Fe's Plaza.Everyone wilt find some favorites missing, but Gatje invites readers to measure their choices against his.He points out that squares' very reason for being provides for their success. The more people in a square, the better it feels. No one complains about crowding at Venice's San Marco. But the simplicity of the goat belies the difficuLty of achieving it.More and better urban spaces are needed in the increasingly crowded cities of the world, and the successes demonstrate that it can be done.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

ITALY

PIAZZA NAVONA, ROME

PIAZZA DELLA ROTONDA, ROME

PIAZZA DELLA ERBE / PIAZZA DEI SIGNORI, VERONA

PIAZZA SAN MARCO / PIAZZETTA, VENICE

CAMPO DEI SANTI GIOVANNI E PAOLO, VENICE

PIAZZA DEL SANTO, PADUA

PIAZZA DEL CAMPO, SIENA

PIAZZA DELLA CISTERNA / PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, SAN GIMIGNANO

PIAZZA VECCHIA / PIAZZA DEL DUOMO, BERGAMO

PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA, FLORENCE

PIAZZA DELLA SANTISSIMA ANNUNZlATA, FLORENCE

CAMPO DE' FIORI AND PIAZZA FARNESE, ROME

PIAZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO, ROME

PIAZZA SAN PIETRO, ROME

PIAZZA DI SPAGNA, ROME

GREECE

FOUNTAIN SQUARE OF HIPPOCRATES, RHODES

CZECH REPUBLIC

OLD TOWN SQUARE, PRAGUE

OLD TOWN SQUARE, TELC

GERMANY

MUNSTERPLATZ, FREIBURG

MUNSTERPLATZ, ULM

FRANCE

PLACE DES CORNIERES, MONPAZIER

PLACE DES VOSGES, PARIS

PLACE VENDOME, PARIS

JARDIN DU PALAIS-ROYAL, PARIS

PLACE STANISLAS, NANCY

IBERIAN PENINSULA

PLAZA MAYOR, SALAMANCA

PRACA DO COMERCIO, LISBON

GREAT BRITAIN

THE CIRCUS, BATH

PIECE HALL, HALIFAX

BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON

CHARLOTTE SQUARE, EDINBURGH

UNITED STATES

THE PLAZA AT SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

LOUISBURG SQUARE, BOSTON

ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NEW YORK

PIONEER COURTHOUSE SQUARE, PORTLAND, OREGON

SUMMARY DATA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

CREDITS