ABSTRACT
There are two main aspects of city ornament. The first is the design and ornamentation of the two dimensional planes enclosing the network of streets and squares. This aspect of city ornament has been considered in previous chapters. This chapter deals with the second aspect of city ornament; the design and use of three dimensional objects, both buildings, major civic monuments and the more utilitarian elements of street furniture. The first decorative category, city spaces, falls within Lynch’s definition of path and node. The second category, major three-dimensional objects within civic space fits most appropriately the definition of city landmark (Lynch, 1960). The distinction between these particular decorative elements is not exclusive and the boundary between typologies is not precise. For example, landmarks can take the form of a distinctive treatment of a wall surface, where two surfaces meet at a corner or where the roofline of a street elevation terminates in a distinctive and dramatic fashion. Conversely, city paths and nodes are frequently enriched with three dimensional objects, some of which act as landmarks.
