Interior Urbanism explores the roots of this contemporary tension between inside and outside, identifying and analysing the concept of interior urbanism and tracing its history back to the works of John Portman and Associates in 1960s and 70s America. Portman - increasingly recognised as an influential yet understudied figure - was responsible for projects such as Peachtree Center in Atlanta and the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel, developments that employed vast internal atriums to define a world of possibilities not just for hotels and commercial spaces, but for the future of the American downtown amid the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s.
The book analyses Portman's architecture in order to reconsider major contexts of debate in architecture and urbanism in this period, including the massive expansion of a commercial imperative in architecture, shifts in the governance and development of cities amid social and economic instability, the rise of postmodernism and critical urban studies, and the defence of the street and public space amid the continual upheavals of urban development.
In this way the book reconsiders the American city at a crucial time in its development, identifying lessons for how we consider the forces at work, and the spaces produced, in citiesin the present.
Charles Rice's study of the architecture of John Portman raises key questions about the quality of public space in modern cities where multi-use complexes with gleaming towers and soaring atriums remake the relationship between street, square and interior. Rice thus offers atimely analysis for developers and planners in today's international marketplace. Alice Friedman, Professor of Art, Wellesley College BOOK ARCHITECTURAL
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