CIT: Cities as Environments

It is useful to review some of the dominate themes that have run through recent and historic discussions of cities as environments. Although concern with urban environmental issues may seem to be new, because of the great amount of attention paid during the past several decades to the negative aspects of urban environments-air, water, and soil pollution - there is a long history of thought, writing, and design about cities as environments, extending back throughout most of western history. This paper briefly reviews some central aspects of the major ideas about city planning and design, relates theses to modern urban dilemmas and contemporary ecological knowledge, and proposes a new synthesis of classical and contemporary ideas.