Quarterly Overview

The use of a grid in architectural and urban planning, particularly at a large scale, would seem to be a rational procedure of obvious utility and without esoteric meaning, a means to control the design of complicated constructions that might otherwise seem labyrinthine in their complexity. But a labyrinth is not the antithesis of the

The casual violence with which the various parts of the second-century Villa of Hadrian crash into each other seems to belie any possibility of a rational plan, although an overall master plan seems a necessity. Amazingly, in the twentieth century, Le Corbusier extolled Hadrian’s Villa as the archetype of great planning. This paper will describe

Sant’Andrea in Mantua is the last of Alberti’s churches yet it is the most complete, and the one in which his intentions seem to be clearest. It takes the form of a Latin cross, but evidence suggests that Alberti had intended a basilican plan. Alberti specified that his proposal was for a church of the

In Manhattan, the epitome of high-rise luxury living has long been the so-called prewar apartment building. These high-rises, located along Park Avenue and Central Park West and constructed prior to the Second World War, are characterized by stone and brick façades, classical or Art Deco detailing inside and out, and formal apartment plans with entrance