Urban Squares as Places, Links and Displays

Jon Lang is an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia where he headed the School of Architecture from 1998 to 2004. He is also the director for urban design of ERG/Environmental Research Group Inc. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born in Kolkata, India he received his early education in that city and in Kalimpong. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a doctorate from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1990, heading its Urban Design Program in the 1980s, before settling in Australia. He has authored books on urban design, architecture in India, the relationship between people and the built environment and on architectural theory. He has served on international urban design juries and worked as a consultant throughout much of Asia as well as the United States and Latin America. He received the Reid and Malik Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) in 2011. Nancy Marshall is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia where she was Associate Dean/Education from 2009 to 2013. She has taught theory and practice in the Planning Program there since 2004 and won the UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007. Born and raised in Calgary Canada, she received her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Calgary and her PhD from the University of New South Wales. Prior to coming to Australia she worked as a planning consultant in Canada specializing in public involvement in urban planning and design. Her work as a planner at the local government level included efforts to more efficiently deliver high quality parks and civic spaces. She has been greatly involved in the affairs of planning – serving as a national, senior editor of the Canadian Institute of Planning’s journal Plan Canada from 1997 to 2002 and a member of Calgary’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board from 1994 to 1997. She is currently a corporate member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

Prologue: The Concern

Part 1: Introduction

1. Experiencing Public Open Spaces

2. Squares as Places, Links and Displays

3. Sociocultural Considerations

Part 2: Types of Urban Squares and their Design

4. Public, Quasi-public and Semi-public Squares

5. Types based on Instrumental Functions:

6. Types based on Size

7. Types based on Degree of Enclosure

8. Types based on Configurations

9. Types based on Internal Designs

10. Types based on Symbolic Functions

11. Types based on Design Paradigms

Part 3: Learning from Case Studies

12. A Score of Case Studies






Rittenhouse House Square, Philadelphia



Sproul Plaza, University of California at Berkeley



Paley Park, New York



Cours Honoréd-Estiennne d’Orves, Marseille



La Place des Terreaux, Lyon



Federation Square, Melbourne



Paternoster Square, London



Robson Square, Vancouver



Olympic Plaza, Calgary



Trafalgar Square, London



The Capitol Square, Chandigarh



Oxford Square, Sydney



Pershing Square, Los Angeles



Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam



The Guggenheim Museum forecourt, Bilbao



North and South Shanghai Railway Station Squares, Shanghai



Jacob K. Javits Federal Building Plaza, New York



Granary Square, London



Times Square, New York



Piazza San Marco, Venice

Part 4: What Works and What Doesn’t Work

13. The Qualities of Lively Urban Squares

14. The Qualities of Quiet Urban Squares

Epilogue