ABSTRACT
A city is a place where a small boy, as he walks through it, may see something that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life.1
The process of urbanism is integral to human habitation and existence, and an investigation of the history of settlement form-making reveals some common placemaking threads that are even present in contemporary urbanism. Placement adjacent to transportation corridors, natural resources, and land free from the effects of natural hazards such as flood plains, volcanoes and earthquakes, is common. Nucleation, specialization, and immediate connections to agriculture have been an integral part of urbanization. Also, there are differences in which some characteristics and locations are beneficial, while others are more detrimental. However, with modern city-making has come the challenge of increasing populations, growth, larger buildings, more complex transportation networks, and further separation of functional uses.
