history | not an easy book |
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In Philadelphia the gridiron street pattern of the local scale of circulation is superimposed upon the resultant diagonal avenues which correspond to the regional scale of circulation in the city because they originally connected the center with the outlying towns. [The diagonal avenues are actual Native American trails.] These juxtapositions create unique, residual, triangular blocks containing unusually shaped buildings, which give the city visual variety and quality.
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The "squares" in Manhattan formed by the unique diagonal intersections of Broadway--for instance, Madison, Union, Herald, and
Times Squares--became events each with its individual character, which added vitality and tension to the overall gridiron of that city.
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The nineteenth century American "elevated" which was juxtaposed above the street anticipated the multi-level city like Sigmond's 1958 plan
for Berlin which proposed a multi-level city with large-scale circulation elevated above the local traffic. In this kind of superimposition the degree of separation lies between the changing, almost incidental superimpositions of forms that are very separate in space and the interpenetration of superimpositions on the same plane.
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