The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards

The majestic, vital streets of European cities and world capitals are most often their grandest and largest in scale, like the Champs Elysaes. The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multi-Way Boulevards celebrates these thoroughfares, created in the 19th century and currently out of favor because of safety concerns and the devotion to vehicles-only roads. Yet urban studies professors Allan B. Jacobs and Elizabeth Macdonald, along with Jerusalem planner Yodan Rofe, argue that boulevards could play an important role in revitalizing blight by getting people back in the same places as other traffic. Barcelona's Passeig de Gracia, Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway, C.G. Road in Ahmedabad, India, and even the Esplanade in Chico, Calif., serve as important examples among the 200 b&w illustrations. ( Dec.)