Cities are both natural and contrived, places where natural forces pulse and millions of people live-thinking, feeling, dreaming, doing. Urban form records this interplay of natural process and human purpose; it embodies stories of past events and ongoing phenomena, of lives, hopes, and fears. This course will develop the ability to "read" the form of the city and decipher its significance. Particular emphasis will be placed upon American cities and the processes that shape downtown, inner-city, and edge city.