ABSTRACT
This chapter examines consistencies and covariations in the metric and spatial parameters of 20 contemporary American urban grids, focused on urban centers and controlled for axial size. It focuses on the methodology and findings of American and European urban grids where it was demonstrated that widespread use of regular grids in American cities results in larger blocks and fewer, longer streets. The chapter presents the formal composition of American suburban layouts as three types (repetitive deformity, asymmetrical regularity, and geomorphic variations), where departure from the large-scale grid logic of their surrounding context is the common denominator, especially in terms of connectivity. The primary determinant for the mutually accessible nature of American urban grids in terms of their spatial configuration is longer street lengths, which tends to intensify connectivity using regular grids. There are four metric parameters: area, line length, line segment length, and line density. At the time, the author attributed these metric characteristics to the space syntax models.
