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Urban Morphology as a Research Method

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 10
URBAN MORPHOLOGY AS
A RESEARCH METHOD
Brenda Case Scheer

Introduction
Urban morphology is the study of the form of settlements over time. For some,
use of the term “urban morphology” is fluid and can refer to generic ideas such
as “central place theory” or “transects” (Duany and Talen, 2002). However, there
are far more specific research-based methodologies that rely on measurement,
analysis, and comparison of actual places. Urban morphology is often used as a
term that ties the form of a place to some other attribute of the place; for example,
its economy, historical events, land use, pedestrian counts, urban design, human
comfort, and social hierarchies. In this chapter, urban morphology is the study of
form in the sense of the physical elements exclusively, rather than the myriad
relationships these elements have to other attributes or qualities (e.g. livability).
This limitation in definition allows study of form per se as a separate and distinct
knowledge area. At the same time, it is obvious that form is correlated with these
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

attributes, and most studies in urban morphology are geared toward evaluating how
form supports broader ideas of place or serves as a background to urban design
(Gauthier and Gilliland, 2006).
The planning academy, if not the profession as a whole, is dominated by
researchers who consider the social, governance, and economic aspects of the
city to be determinant, an argument made by Beauregard and Lieto in this volume.
At the same time, physical planning and urban design has been taken over by
architects, landscape architects, and others, whose prescriptive and creative mindset
is viewed with distrust or even ignored by more data-oriented researchers. As
Ponzini (2018) points out in this volume, the most commonly used collections of
readings in urban planning do not include topics about the physical character
of the city.
Urban morphology, while making an important contribution to urban design
and planning practice, is a field of study where data and methodology are at least
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 168 B. Case Scheer

as reliable as other social science contributions to planning. It commonly operates

through case studies that use similar methodologies worldwide so that knowledge
about particular places can be compared and theories can be developed based on
observed patterns.
The first distinction of urban morphology as a discipline is the idea that
knowledge is gained through comparison of the physical form of actual places, as
opposed to the creation of theoretical economic and social models. The most
common methods of comparison are to compare two places that exist at roughly
the same time (synchronic) or to compare the same place at different times
(diachronic) (see Figure 10.1).
Another way in which urban morphology is distinguished from other kinds
of urban analyses relates to the starting point of acquiring formal data about
specific places (Kropf, 2009). “Form” or formal is defined here to denote the
semipermanent and definitively located physical elements of a place, including, for
example, the tracks of the streetcar, but not the vehicles. Also not included in the
term “form” are the ridership counts, the schedule, the destinations, the ownership
of the streetcar track, or measurements of human comfort, although these may
have important correlations or explain the form.
The researcher starts by gathering contemporary and historical maps, physical
surveys, field measurements, photographs, and documentary records. The data used
in urban morphology are substantially measurable or mathematically derived from
measurements or coordinates of built form and, thus, for the most part objective.
Formal data have scale, are associated with a particular date and a particular study
area, and can be located geographically. There are large amounts of data for any
area under study, and depending on the scale of inquiry, they might include density
of built form, size or segment length of features, street widths, and location of
footpaths and lot boundaries. For buildings, the data frequently include descrip-
tions of materials, plans, and dates of construction. For some studies, data include
topography, elevation, slope, and location of waterways. The data collected in
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

morphology research is limited to the needs of the inquiry at hand. Tools such as
GIS and Google Earth have greatly increased the reach of morphologists.
As we accumulate data about a place, we normally sort that information into
categories. The categorization of these morphological elements is based on the need
to easily distinguish one kind of element from another. The common urban form
elements that morphologists use are buildings, streets, and plots, but a more specific
categorization is built form, the boundaries of paths and plots, and land (Scheer, 2016).
Built form has substantial reality and is man-made. The boundary matrix, which is
defined as the combination of plots and the linear paths of public rights of way,
describes lines and spaces that are measurable and traceable over time, even though
they have no physical substance. Finally, land is the natural landscape terrain upon
which the built form rests. These elements coexist in space and may have literal
co-presence – a boundary may be marked by built form (e.g. a wall) or a natural
feature (e.g. a stream).
Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 169
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

FIGURE 10.1 Morphological data is usually comparative, either diachronic or

synchronic (drawn by Brenda Scheer).

Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 170 B. Case Scheer

Figure 10.2 shows the kinds of data that are commonly collected to represent
urban form, isolated from other conditions of the urban environment (that is, not
land use or other nonphysical data). The following general principles about these
elements are known:

1 They are universal and always present in a settled place, but their specific
configuration is unique for each place. Patterns can be compared across time
and space as long as reliable sources are available.
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FIGURE 10.2 Categories of morphological data (drawn by Brenda Scheer).

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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 171

2 They are measurable in physical dimensions, or in relation to dates, or

mathematically calculated from measurable data (e.g. paving width, density of
lots).
3 They exist objectively. There may be uncertainty about the reliability of any
kind of data, but our assumption is that the information gathered represents
forms that exist or once existed.
4 They are coexistent in space.

Built form is further broken down in Figure 10.2 where different kinds of built
form are classified. Three general categories are recognized – objects, which are non-
occupied constructions; buildings; and infrastructure. Built forms are independent
pieces, although they are always composed of subparts. A building, for example,
is independent of its plot in the sense that it can be demolished without affecting
the plot boundaries.

Data Analysis
After identifying, measuring, and mapping these data points, researchers identify
and interpret patterns that can be seen not only in the place under study, but also
occurring in multiple places. Comparison points are critical for data analysis. For
example, comparison of a single place at intervals of many years can show the patterns
of how that place evolved and can be useful in understanding why that place evolved
the way it did. Figure 10.3 is an overlay of the tip of Manhattan in 1660 and 1996,
showing just land and the path of streets. It is remarkable, and perhaps unexpected,
how many streets are relatively unchanged over 300 years, while no buildings from
the 17th century survive. Over time, the land has been added to substantially by
fill. And the wall that appears in 1660 (one of the very few in US territory) has
now become “Wall Street.”
Urban morphologists are especially interested in patterns that arise in radically
different places and widely spaced eras, as these patterns can tell us something of
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

the culture of the society that created them. Figure 10.4 is compilation of a very
few of these common patterns, demonstrated with real examples. Note that these
patterns are visible at different resolutions of scale, with building types (a kind of
pattern) being the smallest and entire regions the largest.
There are multiple principles that can be observed by comparing formal
configurations. An important category of morphology is to compare buildings in
a single place and time to establish the elements of a building type. A building type
is an abstraction, a pattern, where we observe formal similarities between one
building and another (say, rowhouses in Brooklyn) even though the buildings may
have different architectural expression (Scheer, 2010). Note that the buildings in
Figure 10.5 share many common formal characteristics, but are very different
in color, materials, style, and expressiveness.
Another kind of pattern that is observed is the “plan unit” (Conzen, 1960) or
“urban tissue” (Caniggia and Maffei, 2001). These are patterns that involve a group
Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 172 B. Case Scheer

FIGURE 10.3 An overlay of two maps of lower Manhattan – one from 1660 and one
from 1995. Broadway, Canal Street, and Wall Street (with wall) remain
in the same location. Note the expansion of land over time (drawn by
Brenda Scheer).

of buildings, blocks, and streets that are formally similar. Usually this means they
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

were built at the same time. Plan units can be identified in existing cities by mapping
and analysis of patterns.

Observing Change
The physical city is in constant flux, with buildings being torn down and replaced
quite commonly. The place data that are compared over time or space allow
morphologists to theorize the mechanisms of the various changes that are observed.
Just as important are the observation and explanations of what endures in a city’s
form. Interestingly, morphologists have found that city forms change or endure in
very similar patterns, regardless of culture or even era. For example, we know that
the three elements (built form, the boundary matrix, and the land) change at different
frequencies, as has been noted in most theories of urban morphology. (Panerai
et al., 2004; Moudon, 1986; Caniggia and Maffei, 2001; Scheer, 2001).
Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 173
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

FIGURE 10.4 A few examples of common patterns of urban form that have been
identified and documented in multiple settings by urban morphologists
(drawn by Brenda Scheer).

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 174 B. Case Scheer

FIGURE 10.5 Brownstone rowhouses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City, are a

clear example of a type. Note the variation in details, while the building
types have similarities in scale, proportion, overall organization, and
features such as the tall stoop (photo by NewYork10R. licensed under
CC 3.0).

One key finding concerns the relative endurance rate of buildings vs. streets:
buildings can be very long-lived, but they do not typically last as long as the
boundary of paths and plots that contain them. As we just saw, the current street
pattern of lower Manhattan has endured from the 17th century, but there are no
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

buildings that survive from that time period. Similar endurances have been
documented all over the world.
While a boundary matrix can endure as buildings change, when it does change,
it will usually affect all the built form that touches it. For example, when a street
is widened, even if buildings are retained, the objects that constitute the path’s
physical presence are almost all destroyed and replaced: paving, landscape, signs,
etc. If a lot is combined, an existing building may remain, it may be added on to,
the new plot may be subject to repletion (the addition of more buildings), or the
entire plot may be redeveloped with a new, somewhat larger building.
Disruption of the boundary matrix is not like these stepwise evolutions,
however, which are carried out by individual actors in a slow, evolving dance.
Disruption involves a radical restructuring of boundaries caused by deliberate action
of a powerful agent or a catastrophe. Just as evolutionary changes reflect subtly
shifting conditions in the environment, disruption signals a radical change in those
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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 175

same conditions: a new regime has taken control, or a powerful agency has started
a slum clearance program, or a new superhighway must be built through a
neighborhood. With a disruption to the boundary matrix, most of the built form
is also destroyed. The most dramatic changes, which also cause plan disruption,
are those that change the landform itself: cataclysmic events like earthquakes,
landslides, and floods, or a man-made land-altering event like leveling a hill to fill
in the sea (e.g. Boston, Seattle, New York). Interestingly, some catastrophes (the
fire of London, the bombing of Hiroshima) do not result in boundary changes
– new buildings are built within the boundary matrix of the destroyed city – signaling
the important endurance of this form.

North American Morphology – Common Research

Themes
One of the key characteristics of the North American urban form is its response
to relatively rapid change. North America is like a laboratory devoted to finding
specimens that quickly reproduce. Auto-oriented building types can change so
rapidly that they seem accelerated lessons in the evolution of types (Scheer, 2010).
The structure of medium-sized cities and towns, which for centuries in Europe
and other established urban places has changed relatively slowly, in North America
has exploded in size and land coverage, even without attendant huge population
gain. Change is a precondition of urban form in North America.
North American morphologists are quick to acknowledge the flexibility
and persistence of the ubiquitous 18th- and 19th-century grid, which provides a
framework for orderly but very rapid growth. Pioneer settlements west of the
Appalachians used the grid almost exclusively to rapidly lay out streets and lots and
to sell property. For example, the Oklahoma land run in 1893 created three or
four small towns that were surveyed and settled in less than a month. Pierce Lewis
(1990) notes the grid as a flexible framework used nearly universally after the
popularity and success of the 1682 Penn plan for Philadelphia.
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The theme of rapid morphological change in North America began most

prominently with Anne Vernez Moudon’s (1986) classic and groundbreaking
study of the Alamo neighborhood in San Francisco. The title of the book – Built
for Change – encapsulates the idea of flexibility. She notes that the streets and plots
(cadaster) support not only change, but also several flexible building typologies.
Looking at Savannah, GA, Anderson (1993) analyzes the extraordinary, varied,
and flexible city structure that allowed a sophisticated build out and subsequent
redevelopment. Scheer and Ferdelman (2001) document a 100-year period of change
in the grid and built form in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. They
lament the loss of flexibility as they document the partial destruction of the
neighborhood’s tissue and the tendency to combine plots to make larger buildings.
More recently, the famous grid of Manhattan has been celebrated in detail with
the 200th birthday of its foundation, especially noted for its persistence, its formal
clarity, and its intense flexibility for adaptation to modern forms (Ballon, 2012).
Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 176 B. Case Scheer

This emphasis on the flexibility of traditional forms and their tendency to absorb
change while maintaining order has also resulted in an interest in preserving and
infilling the extant traditional forms (building types and the boundary matrix of
plots and paths).
Suburban sprawl is another theme. A significant amount of urban morphological
study in the US has been devoted to the study of the great and disruptive suburban
extensions of the city, which accelerated with the streetcar and the car, starting in
the late 1920s. Southworth and Owens (1993) document the change in form of
suburban neighborhoods from modest, gridded extensions to the sprawling “loops
and lollipops” of cul-de-sacs and curved streets. Moudon also identifies changing
suburban neighborhood patterns, along with Hess, while also supporting the
concept that certain categories of change could be observed in highly differentiated
places (Moudon, 1998; Moudon and Hess, 2000). Scheer (2001) reports similar
transformations in Hudson, Ohio, while reporting on the persistence of the 1790
gridded land survey cadaster in the overall city.
In addition to residential transformation, suburban formal commercial trans-
formation has also been studied. One study of diachronic change in development
along commercial highways as the city expands outward from its foundation grid
and grid extensions led to the contribution of the concepts of “static, elastic, and
campus tissues” to the morphology lexicon of patterns (Scheer, 2001, 2010, 2015).
The form of “edge cities” (size, rapid expansion land area, changing building and
roadway types) has been compared to that of traditional central cities (Scheer and
Petkov, 1998). Gilliland and Gauthier (2006, p. 58) document the rising interest
in Canada of morphological research that informs questions of affordable housing,
urban sprawl, and transportation systems.

Urban Morphology in Practice

One of the primary concerns of American urban designers and planners is
dissatisfaction with the contemporary form and build out of American cities. North
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

American suburban form can be traced to the worldwide change in architecture

(modernism). Modernism’s disconnection from the traditional city also enabled the
isolated typologies of the North American suburban form (e.g. big box stores and
gas stations) while it glorified the speed and independence engendered by the
automobile.
Beginning in 1990, the dispersed and disconnected suburban form was identified
by reformers as a clear crisis. These sprawling forms discouraged a sense of com-
munity, neglected pedestrians, increased land coverage, required long commutes,
implemented a dominating car infrastructure, and were (for urbanists) boring,
unsustainable, and unlivable (Duany, 2000; Calthorpe, 1993; Talen, 1999). Over
the last two decades, the complaints about suburban form multiplied (encour-
ages obesity, contributes to air pollution, etc.) while, at the same time, suburban
typologies – shopping strips and single-family neighborhoods – rapidly built out
not only in North America, but also all over the world.
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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 177

Practitioners, responding to this dissatisfaction with dispersed forms, have tended

to reify the traditional form of the early American gridded downtown, at all scales.
As Conzen (2004) points out, however, these existing gridded formations are very
small compared to the conurbations that surround cities of any size in North
America. Practitioners, such as New Urbanists, therefore find it advantageous to
copy and invent “historical” forms, including aesthetic tropes that imitate the look
of 19th-century building types, as well as mimicking the grain of the gridded block
and street.
Andres Duany, the leader of the New Urbanism reformers, promotes generic
solutions consisting of holistically planned, “livable” settlement areas (called transects),
which provide blueprints and guidelines for “good” city form at all scales currently
present in the North American landscape (Duany and Talen, 2002; Brower, 1996).
Urban morphology offers a more substantial background to design than a
generic approach, insisting on understanding and documenting what is before
proposing essentially foreign solutions. Overlaying a generic urban design idea on
a place that has been created and lived in for a period of years ignores the essential
evolutionary nature of the physical city. New urbanist projects are often modeled
on historically accreted cities and neighborhoods, which achieve their diversity and
integration through a slowly evolving set of cultural circumstances. The forms that
arise from these practices can be subject to critique by morphologists, who note
their lack of flexibility, or their lack of natural evolutionary character, and their
generic solutions, which do not derive from the study of the historical form in a
particular place (Scheer, 2010, p. 106). Neuman (2005, p. 22) writes,

The new urbanist’s town is a static product of a developer’s marketing

campaign rather than an evolving process of human development. . . .
Compact settlements with an emphasis on density, pedestrians, and public
transportation only address a few of the ills attending modern metropolises.
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

Planning Practice
Urban planners and urban designers have much to learn from applying
morphological methods to a study area. Even in places where there has been no
non-agricultural development, it is often the case that the pre-development
boundaries of fields and farm roads are retained and become the deep structure of
the city over time (Scheer, 2001; Bosselmann, 2008; Bonine, 1979). Ignoring the
persistence of formal boundaries can be problematic for the planner because these
boundaries signify so much for their owners. So, even planning for a new city
addition may need to acknowledge the preexisting boundaries and patterns that
have evolved in the place over time.
However, morphological analysis is most informative within the context of an
existing settled place. Rather than the disruptive program of wiping out large areas
to introduce an entirely new city form (as observed in large Asian cities), the nature
of many urban design and physical planning projects in the US is generally small.
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 178 B. Case Scheer

This scale of urban planning operates where existing cities, places, cultures, and
landscapes are deliberately engaged – where the solutions to specific problems arise
or emerge from the physical conditions and socioeconomic systems. This urbanism,
emerging from the existing place, is as much discovered as it is designed, through
systematic analysis of history, networks, and patterns. It implies a continuous urban
pattern rather than a disruptive one, or it is disruptive deliberately to supply an
emergent pattern. It enhances a framework, or it organizes a framework. It looks
to the past and to the future – predicting and accommodating the next evolution
as well as the present one. For this kind of planning, morphological analysis is a
key starting point.
Urban designers and architects are increasingly looking to the following
strategies, all of which rely on the methods of urban morphology to provide the
historical perspective, primary data, and analysis. These strategies favor using the
existing physical pattern of place to provide clues about the next development.

• Repair. This idea looks to repair or restore a pattern or fabric that has been
disrupted or lost, especially a network of streets or open space corridors.
Designers try to knit back together streets and large areas that were disrupted
in the 20th century. One example of this is the redevelopment of the land
previously occupied by large shopping center islands to restore street patterns
and create connections to nearby neighborhoods (Dunham-Jones and
Williamson, 2009). Another example of a repair strategy is proposals to rework
disruptive highways that have left a path of destruction in the city. (See, for
example, I-80 in Syracuse, NY.) Another notable example is Peter
Bosselmann’s work in Oakland, CA (2008, pp. 193–221), which draws on
variations of the historic grid pattern there to knit together a city partly
destroyed by freeways.
• Appropriation of historic types and patterns. Especially in resource-challenged times,
adapting patterns for contemporary use in such a way as to preserve the general
scale and grain is an effective way to preserve character but also acknowledge
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

modern sensibility, materials, modes of transportation, and so on. This can

include infill or new development that is continuous or contiguous with older
patterns. Europeans seem to do this best: see, for example, the Borneo-
Sporenburg houses in Amsterdam, a reinterpretation of the canal house type
(West 8 Urban Design and Landscape, 1993–1996). In Savannah, GA, a
waterfront redevelopment deliberately invokes the older, much beloved pattern
of old Savannah in its new town plan (Conn, 2010). This strategy is used to
tie old and new together in order to brand new development with the aura
of nearby older places. Just as importantly, this strategy invokes climatic and
environmental appropriateness by looking to low-energy, passive strategies of
the past.
• Reveal. A more complex strategy is one that discovers or uncovers previously
uncelebrated or even unknown patterns and historical artifacts in the existing
place and then uses that discovery to create new public spaces or development
Sanchez, T. W. (Ed.). (2017). Planning knowledge and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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 Urban Morphology as a Research Method 179

programs, which themselves organize newer development. A famous example

of this is the Highline in New York City, which took an eyesore and made
it into a development magnet and popular open space (see Highline, 2012).
More recently, Canalscape, the project to bring to life the long-neglected canals
in Phoenix, AZ, has provided a framework for denser activities (Ellin, 2010).
• Rupture. This strategy is used to deliberately break a pattern that is unhealthy,
ill-adapted to changing climate conditions, and unfriendly to quality of life.
Increasingly, this strategy will be used to adapt suburban fabrics that have
evolved in energy-profligate times. So-called “road diets” that narrow large
arterials are an example of this strategy (Rosales, 2006). This is one of the
most difficult areas of urban design and one where the persistence of the existing
and evolved place (e.g. a highway strip, a settled subdivision) is often ignored.
• Regulation. The fragmentation and weakness of development control in the
US has led planners to focus on an urban design strategy of regulation rather
than physical plans. Urban design in practice suffers because of the reluctance
of cities to plan – streets, subdivisions, and open spaces are haphazardly
proposed or tendered by land developers with commercial motivations rather
than civic ones. As planners move to take firmer control over development
as a way of making places more livable, they increasingly look to morphological
analysis to provide validity and reduce the arbitrariness of codes and other
regulations. In infill situations, the city will sometimes write codes or introduce
zoning that are morphologically based. This is by far the most extensive use
of morphological or typological research in North America.

Conclusions
In this paper, we have explored the nature of urban morphology as a quantifiable
interpretation of the physical form of the city with its own theories to explain
change in multiple urban situations. Pure morphological research adds to and
enlightens other kinds of research, such as economic or demographic analysis, about
Copyright © 2017. Routledge. All rights reserved.

a place. It also enlightens our understanding of how places are created and how
they change by comparing multiple examples.
Applications of morphology in practice depend on connecting observations about
form and formal change to the history, culture, and life of the city. In practice,
urban planners can use the data and analysis of urban morphology to build a stronger
case for continuity in cities, rather than the disruptive planning changes that have
marred much 20th-century transportation and renewal planning. The strategies
outlined above rely on urban morphology in some form to understand how the
city has changed in the past and how it may change in the future even without a
formal plan. Just as importantly, morphological analysis provides a basis for design
that is unique and place-centered. It can protect valuable vernacular resources (e.g.
buildings, alleys, street patterns) by recognizing their active contribution to the
physical character of the place even when they are not extraordinary in terms of
the usual artifacts of preservation.
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 180 B. Case Scheer

By measuring and analyzing the urban fabric over time, the designer gains a
realization of the subtleties and especially the particularities of a place that otherwise
can be easily overlooked and misinterpreted. Whenever these historic changes over
time are misunderstood, the designer misses an important analytical key that would
ground the new project in the community and provide honest historic continuity.

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Created from utah on 2019-12-06 10:49:15.

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