Description: Learning from Savannah bridges the mostly separate worlds of the history of Savannah's famed urban plan and the history of the city's architecture. The authors analyze the history of the urban plan, how it functions, and how it has shaped the city's buildings in distinctive ways. Distilling over two decades of original research on the history of Savannah's built environment, as well as the daily experience of it, Gobel and Williams uncover the complex and illusive qualities that have enthralled visitors since the nineteenth century and architects and planners since the mid-twentieth. The book includes many previously unpublished historic maps and images, as well as numerous original analytical diagrams that interpret the city in fresh ways.
Brief description: DAVID W. GOBEL is professor of architectural history at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he has taught since 1996. He has published articles in a variety of architectural and urban-planning journals, and he is one of four coauthors of the award-winning SAH Buildings of Savannah guidebook. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.
Review Quotes: Any urbanist knows that the Savannah Plan stands in a class all its own, as a model of what we might hope to achieve when we pair vision with vitality. Gobel and Williams offer a careful account of the layers of wisdom embedded in the remarkable longevity of the city we enjoy today, then demonstrate the meaning we can derive from the blocks, streets, and buildings that make the Savannah Plan real. Learning from Savannah: From Ideal City to Elastic Urbanism is a must for anyone who appreciates this famously planned city!--Mallory B. E. Baches "President of the Congress for the New Urbanism"