ABSTRACT
In pre-automobile cities, public funds were spent to build post offices, courthouses, libraries, and places of governance and to maintain streets, piazzas, markets, and parks. These were the places for spontaneous interaction — a distinct realm, maintained by the public. Hence, Milan's Galleria Victor Emanuel of 1865 extended directly from one street to a public square through the city block, its interior floored with masonry, its glass roof flooding the space with light, and the shop facades. The growth of malls, country clubs, fitness centers, and atria of all kinds is a reaction to the absence of the old kind of public space, a retreat to a controlled and secured realm. The best sites were selected and designated for major buildings, such as Boston's public library facing Copley Place, or the New York Public Library on Bryant Park.
