The Perfect City (Creating the North American Landscape)

In The Perfect City, photographer Bob Thall explores the changing downtown landscape of America's third-largest city - Chicago. In sixty-four duotone photographs, Thall provides a visual record of the changing architectural landscape of downtown Chicago between 1972 and 1991. Throughout, Thall's photographs stress the concept of change and the importance of architecture in shaping our notion of place. They examine the great public spaces, buildings, and streets that have always served at the heart and soul of city life, culture, and commerce. And they show how the city in which modern urban architecture began becomes a metaphor for urban change throughout America. In the essay accompanying the photographs Peter Bacon Hales examines the notion of the city as museum (especially for visitors from the suburbs and rural areas), highlights the successes and failures of urban renewal in downtown Chicago, and assesses the city's current character.