Kevin Lynch is a magnificent writer who expresses the heart and mind of the city beyond simple infrastructure and services. Lynch presses beyond the ordinary for meaning and memory in cities and he imbues each of the senses in the expectation of what a city must provide for those who live and prosper within the city skin. Consider this quote from his monograph, The Image of the City:

The art of shaping cities for sensuous enjoyment is an art quite separate from architecture or music or literature. It may learn a great deal from these other arts, but it cannot imitate them.

Or ponder this thought from his Good City Form monograph:

Decisions about urban policy, or the allocation of resources, or where to move, or how to build something, must use norms about good and bad. Without some sense of better, any action is perverse. When values lie unexamined, they are dangerous.

Kevin Lynch’s vision and writing are consistently breathtaking. Take a trip through his cities on the page and prepare to catch more than your breath.