This is a remarkable eclectic group of essays about how we live in structures. There are quotable observations about life, excellent black and white photographs, and useful suggestions for living life, in buildings and without. The essays are largely American and deal with the twentieth century and twentieth century men, women, teenagers and children. One study is on Howard Johnson and has useful historical as well as architectural facts. Levittown speculates not only on its houses but the lives of the lower middle class for which this mass housing was intended. Downtown intriques me the most. The author is known for difficult brushes with the law.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kurtz. I am surprised so few Librarythingers do not own this book. ( )