Preserving the World's Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis

In March of 1995 author Anthony M. Tung journeyed to 22 of the world's greatest cities in order to study how architectural preservation had failed and succeeded in some of the most artistically and historically significant urban areas around the globe. Having served for many years as a member of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission, Tung sought to understand how the complex issue of urban conservation was handled around the world and to gather in one book a body of very basic information about this practice. Until the 20th century, each new stage of architecture and construction referred substantially to previous stages; in Western culture, there was a "direct aesthetic line" connecting the architecture of classical Greece, imperial Rome, the Romanesque period, the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Rocco, and all forms of classical revival that followed, with even divergent traditions like French Gothic or English Tudor making use of common architectonic elements. Cities tended to be harmonious, each new generation of buildings blending with older buildings to a great degree. In the 20th century however, many age-old aesthetic traditions were abruptly discarded by a modern, new, jarring architecture, built often at vastly different scales than older buildings, of completely different materials, built with new methods, buildings that were consciously designed to have a complete lack of relationship with the previous continuum of form. In Cairo for instance skylines once dominated by domes and minarets of mosques are now ruled by looming massive hotels. Massive gray residential slabs now dominate the remaining parts of historic Moscow. In some cases, as in New York, new buildings were built over and around preserved historic buildings, making them appear toy-like and ridiculous. Further, these buildings of alien scale and design often hopelessly fractured any urban architectural harmony, often forever, as what was destroyed can either never be replaced or only replaced at great financial, legal, political, and economic cost. Older cities of handcrafted buildings, made of natural materials from the immediate environment of the city, reflecting the historical values and physical characteristics of unique urban cultures Tung wrote now constitute a "finite resource from a closed period of human cultural evolution." Much of the unique architecture of the world's great cities - ancient Roman ruins, the cross-cultural traditions of Singaporean pernanakan architecture, buildings that show a great "specialness of place" - is still in danger in many places of being replaced by a global monoculture, of older unique buildings being replaced by comparatively poorly constructed structures that are generic in design and that differ little in response to local environmental and social surroundings. Why were older buildings replaced? War certainly plays a factor as might be expected, though by and large Tung feels that city residents themselves

this book is a wonderful read. it should be a mandatory read for all city planners/architects. there is so much we can learn from the successes and failure of other cities' efforts in preserving their heritage. for most people, it's still a great treat coz' the stories of how these great evolves are just mesmerizing. the tale of the reconstruction of warsaw is a moving moment of human history. and the decaying of ancient cairo is tragic and upsetting. the author manages to tell these stories in a context relevant to all of us, as a city dweller or a visitor in a globalized world. he also makes us aware of the complex underlying forces behind the metamorphosis of these urban fabrics. i am looking forward to visiting or revisiting these great cities after reading this book. and i am eagerly waiting for a sequel that uncovers the stories of other great cities like prague, kathmandu, bangkok, shanghai, new delhi, sydney, buenos aires, havana, istanbul, barcelona...

For close to three decades, I've tried to understand why some cities preserve their historic and architectural fabric, while others destroy theirs. I now have a much better understanding about the political, social, and economic dynamics underlying preservation, or the lack thereof. Moreover, the author articulated some basics that no previous book ever did. Like, what is holding up all those building in Venice? And why did Warsaw, almost alone among cities ravaged in WWII, rebuild its historic fabric? The author not only answered my Warsaw question, but moved me to near tears in the process. (Why isn't this heroic story being made into a movie?) In short, buy this fascinating, informative book!

I picked up this book because I love Venice--no intention of buying it, just browsing, but the introduction inspired me to know and read more. What a treat this book has been! It is not at all pedantic, and encompasses far more than discussions of buildings; it is about history, lifestyles, politics, beauty, and cruelty. The book calls attention to the dire poverty so many people endure, and the deep danger that so many of the world's greatest, most historic and exotic cities face because of lack of money, corrupt politicians, gigantic bureaucracies, uncontrolled population growth, shortsightedness, and the weather. Yet the book is uplifting, too. The most amazing chapter deals with the total destruction of Warsaw during WWII, and the strength and ingenuity the Polish people used to rebuild it. I was surprised and delighted by the depth of Mr. Tung's historical knowledge, his fairness, his compassion, and his prose. A wonderful book in every way.

This is a remarkably profound and informative work. The author, Anthony Tung, has somehow successfully and exquisitly managed to comprehend the city as a living organism - uniting the social, psychological, and cultural features of the population of the city with its physical, material, and institutional environment. The physical aspect of the city is the externalization of the ethos of its people. In turn it also daily reinforces and recreates that ethos. The city is also one of the major "secondary ties", i.e. substitutes for our "primary tie", our family, that we necessarily create as we move from infancy into the chaos of the external world. As such it is one of our most important communities, and helps to provide us with a sense of identity, meaning, and stability in the face of the meaninglessness and anxiety provoking nature of the world. As the family does, it succors us and protects us. In return we give it our loyalty. As long as this relationship between the city and its people is harmonious, the quality of life ranges from the tolerable to the the exhilirating. But when that organic unity is seriously ruptured, the consequences are devastating. Thus the "preservation" of the city is too serious a matter to be left to chance. In his scholarly review of the history of the great world cities he takes up here Tung has, together with the orientation noted above, also found exceptionally fruitful Freud's great model, from his Civilization and Its Discontents, that views history, made by human beings, as the dynamic resultant of eros and thanatos, life and death forces, of destructive and preservative impulses. Thus, all in all, he has given us a unique work, indeed a seminal work on the subject, and one which will, and should, set the tone for future scholarship and practice. Leo Kaplan (...)