The 99% Invisible City : a Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design

Locations
Call Number: 720 Mar, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Art / Design / Mars, Roman
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	720 Mar	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Art / Design / Mars, Roman	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Art / Design / Mars, Roman	4-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024

Introduction -- Inconspicuous. Ubiquitous ; Camouflage ; Accretions -- Conspicuous. Identity ; Safety ; Signage -- Infrastructure. Civil ; Water ; Technology ; Roadways ; Public -- Architecture. Liminal ; Materials ; Regulations ; Towers ; Foundations ; Heritage -- Geography. Delineations ; Configurations ; Designations ; Landscapes ; Synanthropes -- Urbanism. Hostilities ; Interventions ; Catalysts -- Outro.
1. Inconspicuous -- Ubiquitous -- Official graffiti: utility codes -- Initialed impressions: sidewalk markings -- Planned failure: breakaway posts -- A little safer: emergency boxes -- Camouflage -- Thornton's scent bottle: stink pipes -- Exhaustive outlets: fake facades -- Catalytic diverters: ventilation buildings -- Neighborhood transformers: electrical substations -- Cellular biology: wireless towers -- Resourceful artifice: production wells -- Accretions -- Seeing stars: anchor plates -- Scarchitecture: urban infill -- Lines of sight: relay nodes -- Thomassons: maintained remains -- Accumulative controversy: love locks -- Spolic of war: constructive reuse -- 2. Conspicuous -- Identity -- Vexillology rules: municipal flags -- Public bodies: civic monuments -- Fonts of knowledge: historical plaques -- Distinguished features: that fancy shape -- Safety -- Mixed signals: traffic lights -- Visibility aids: retroreflective studs -- Checkered past: recognition patterns -- Memorable but meaningless: warning symbols -- Signs of times: shelter markers -- Signage -- Broad strokes: hand-painted graphics -- tube benders: neon lights -- Sky dancers: inflatable figures -- Outstanding directors: production placards -- Minded businesses: absent advertising -- 3. Infrastructure -- Civic -- Bureaucracy inaction: incidental bridge -- Good delivery: postal service -- Water -- Rounding down: manhole covers -- Upwardly potable: drinking fountains -- Reversing course: waste management -- Circling back: subsurface cisterns -- Apples to oysters: flood mitigation -- Technology -- Fine lines: utility poles -- Alternated currents: power grids -- Moonlight towers: street lights -- Dialed back: electricity meters -- Network effects: internet cables -- Roadways -- Accelerating change: painting centerlines -- Shifting responsibility: blaming jaywalkers -- Key indicators: crash testing -- Cemented divisions: lane separators -- Extra turns: safer intersections -- Circulating logic: rotary junctions -- Incomplete stops: calming tragic -- Reversing gears: changing lanes -- Public -- On verges: interstitial spaces -- Crossing over: pedestrian signals -- Sharrowed routes: cycling lanes -- Congestion costs: easing gridlock -- Extravehicular activities: naked streets -- 4. Architecture -- Liminal -- Imperfect security: locked entries -- Open and shut: revolving doors -- Improved egress: emergency exits -- Materials -- Stolen facades: recycling brick -- Aggregate effects: cracking concrete -- Hybrid solutions: amassing timber -- Regulations -- Secular orders: taxable units -- formative setbacks: mansard roofs -- Heaven to hell: property limits -- Towers -- Braking good: modern elevators -- Cladding skeletons: curtain walls -- Topping out: skyscraper races -- Unanticipated loads: managing crises -- Perspective matters: redefining skylines -- Beyond above: engineering icons -- Grouped dynamics: street canyons -- Foundations -- Vernacular enclaves: international districts -- Reality checks: service centers -- Approachable ducks: commercial signifies -- Competitive starchitecture: contrasting additions -- Heritage -- Heathen's gate: overlapping narratives -- Landmark ruling: historic preservation -- Recrowned jewel: complex restoration -- Architectural license: faithless reconstruction -- Unnatural selection: subjective stabilization -- Faded attraction: alluring abandonment -- Runed landscapes: peripheral traces -- Unbuilding codes: premeditated deconstruction -- 5. Geography -- Delineations -- Points of origin: zero markers -- Edge cases: boundary stones -- Defining moments: standardized time -- Road boosters: national highways -- Configurations -- Rounding errors: Jeffersonian grids -- Unassigned lands: patchwork plans -- Rectilinear revelations: coordinated layouts -- Good eixamples: reconfigured super-blocks -- Standard deviation: growth patterns -- Designations -- Citations needed: informal geonyms -- Hybrid acronames: neighborhood monikers -- Calculated omissions: unlucky numbers -- Deliberated errors: fictitious entries -- Misplaced locations: null island -- Paced ways: Tucson stravenues -- Accessible voids: nameless places -- Landscapes -- Graveyard shifts: pastoral parks -- Trailing spaces: converted greenways -- Courting palms: street trees -- Lawn enforcement: owned backyards -- Lofty treescrapers: ungrounded plants -- synanthropes -- Naturalized denizens: common squirrels -- Ghost streams: fish stories -- Home to roost: unloved doves -- Raccoon resistance: trash pandas -- Unmanned lands: wildlife corridors -- 6. Urbanism -- Hostilities -- Loved park: dubious skateblockers -- Urine trouble: discouraging spikes -- Obstinate objects: discomforting seats -- Cities of light: dissuasive illumination -- Targeting demographics: disruptive sounds -- Exterior motives: deceptive deterrents -- Interventions -- Guerrilla fixation: unsanctioned shield --- Drawing attention: viral signage -- Asking permission: open hydrants -- Seeking forgiveness: embattled boulders -- Legitimizing action: middle way -- Catalysts -- Ramping up: cutting curbs -- Cycling through: clearing cars -- Driving away: appropriating parklets -- Grating on: grassroots gardening -- Bumping out: collaborative peacemaking.
"A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast." -- Provided by publisher.
Have you ever stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? Mars and Kohlstedt reveal the stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. They celebrate design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs. This exploration of the origins and stories behind power grids, fire escapes, drinking fountains and more will delight anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them. -- adapted from wrap-around and Amazon info

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A Closer Look at Things You See Everyday submitted by KPNF on August 3, 2022, 4:59am We thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is a collection of short discussions of the history behind many of the things in our society’s infrastructure that we see everyday and don’t give a second thought. Or maybe we do ask ourselves what something is and either make an incorrect assumption or never follow-up on the question. A great book to read a few chapters at a time and you will learn something each time you pick up the book.

Changes the way you look when walking around a city submitted by ajh on July 22, 2023, 11:49am This book, stemming from the 99 Percent Invisible podcast (check it out), is fantastic. It helps you look a little more closely at the things that exist in our world's infrastructure, but we rarely focus on (hence the 99 percent invisible title). I notice more on what's above our streets, what's on our streets, and what's below out streets (and elsewhere). Also, fantastic illustrations.