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I call
these guides "Cartesian" because of what tends to be their
method of organization; rather than simply going by existing political
or geographic units, neighbourhood or "tourist sectors", they subject
the locality in question to a gridded matrix, whereupon a separate chapter
is dedicated to each delineated grid unit. What might seem like a fatally
arbitrary method in theory can work surprisingly well in execution, though
it's proven more applicable within an Anglo-European context than in North
America; one of the earliest (first published in 1983) and most biting
examples, and one that's particularly familiar to Torontonians as it's
co-authored by one of Mississauga City Hall's architects, is "A Guide to the
Architecture of London" by Edward Jones and Christopher Woodward. An
intriguing feature about Jones & Woodward, and others like it, is that it's
not only "Cartesian" but, within each unit, chronologically rather than
geographically arranged; each chapter, each sector, becomes a stirring,
turbulent, exciting, instructive procession of several centuries of
encapsulated architectural progress (and non-progress). Each entry is
typically accompanied by a capsule photo (sometimes more than one), and in
case the format disorients the casual perambulator, the ultra-detailed,
well-keyed, and very European sector maps can keep one on solid ground.
(It also, in a mysterious manner, renders "necessary" omissions a little less
galling.) More than most such guidebooks, "Cartesian" guides feel
architectonic right down to their basic structure--and a well-fleshed-out
structure it is, thanks to computerized advances in publishing and the general
"post-modern" (and beyond) trajectory of architectural/urbanistic theory and
creation.
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It's an impressive,
sophisticated model -but perhaps too much so; in
a sense, it's really more workable in better-developed "architectural cultures"
(such as in major European metropoli) than our own. (Yes, I wish it was otherwise...)
However, the central element of its geographic structure--the gridded
matrix--could be an ideal full-coverage way of tackling Toronto's current,
increasingly boundary-blurred "Megacity" reality. (As well as giving the
Megacity that unified, non-parochial "urban progressive" gloss it has,
through its original notoriety and motivations to its current practice,
so miserably lacked. Or, to take the opposite standpoint, making some
pretty ambitious lemonade out of an apparent lemon. Ah, if only the
city-that-works momentum of the Crombie era was sustained...)
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Introduction
Pevsner and WPA
America: the first wave
AIA Guide to New York City
David Gebhard: America's Pevsner
Goldberger, Banham, and Moore (and more).
Buffalo: Vindication
Chicago: Maturity
The Buildings of the United States series
London + Vienna + Berlin = Cartesian Europe
One Vancouver, many Montréals
Toronto: Opportunity
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