The Spectator and the Topographical City

Pittsburgh in the land is nothing less than artwork unfolding before our eyes . . . Aurand's book is a reassertion of Pittsburgh's topographical beauty.

From the headwaters of the three rivers through Iron City, Martin Aurand reveals the historic terrestrial foundation for Pittsburgh's cultural ecology. Tracking the spectator across the city's unique human and geologic morphology, he reveals that the true city landmark is more than the signature skyscraper or civic monument, but the land markings themselves—a civilizing terrain. As places compete globally for their identity, their topography becomes more than scenery but that distinguishing feature that cannot be replicated.

Like Poe's 'Purloined Letter,' the topography of Pittsburgh is hidden in plain sight, obscured not only by our scholarly preoccupation with the industrialists, politicians, and philanthropists who dominate most histories of the city, but also due to the simple fact that it is so difficult to see Pittsburgh at a single glance. Dividing the city into three 'terrestrial rooms,' Aurand proposes a novel design imperative to explain much of Pittsburgh's development: the 'mimetic geomorphic construction.'

"The Spectator and the Topographical City is intellectually stimulating, fresh, and painstakingly researched. Human beings need to be seen in their native habitat, and anyone who has thought about it understands that the built environment enriches or detracts from the quality of our lives. Aurand has a lot to teach us about this subject."

This is, in a sense, a book that needed to be written, which you'll see as you read through and realize the wealth of information that Aurand has brought together in accomplishing this study. Many sources and other studies of Pittsburgh have touched on portions of this material, but this book pulls it all together in a satisfying way that has not been fully explored before.

Beautifully conceived and written, meticulously researched and documented, and handsomely illustrated.

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has at last found a muse to celebrate its sublime beauty. . . . A beautifully and intelligently written book replete with scholarly apparatus and index. While it definitely has scholarly appeal, it stands mainly as a tribute to the Pittsburgh landscape; it is a symphony in words to the greatness of a city's morphology viewed from the vantage point of a sympathetic spectator.

The highest compliment I can pay Aurand's book is that it transforms us, the readers, into the ideal spectators Aurand's topographical city deserves. Once we become that spectator we can never see Pittsburgh and its architectural history in the same way again.

No one interested in the terra still all too incognita of space's third dimension could read Aurand without learning much—and wanting to learn more.