"The 99% Invisible City" explains how different design features in cities have come about and why they are that way. These are short entries, only two or three pages long per topic. Rather than looking at the best design, we're often told about a poor design that doesn't work. Or we're told how someone was inspired to create something and how it works. The book covered things like what various sidewalk markings mean, how to spot fake façades and what they might cover up, how a city changes over time and how to spot marks of the past that have been left behind, how to create a memorable flag or warning symbol, how advertising can literally hide things, why manhole covers are round and have a design on the top, safety features that are built into signs and such, design considerations behind creating cycling lanes, the naming of streets, how revolving doors came about, how regulations have affected architecture over time, lots of things about skyscrapers, and more. There are some rough line drawings that show the object being discussed. Actual pictures would have been better, but you get an idea of what the thing being talked about look like. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting book.

Very interesting. Using sketches instead of photographs too lends the book a dynamic immersive experience. So much science behind the color coded signs. It was funny watching the palm tree- not a palm tree. At a conference where there was a new flying helicopter technology someone wondered if people would allow helipads on their property just like these palm trees hiding some ugly technology. Good way of connecting deeply with the city you live in, travel or know others from there.

Really enjoyed all of the urban fun facts that this book brought to the table. Sadly, it didn't live up to its potential because of the execution. To really appreciate much of this information included here, this should have been a book with lots of pictures - as the phrase 'field guide' also implies. Instead, I kept having to turn away from the text to look things up on the internet to fully understand, which took away from the experience. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of thing, but with the heads up about what to expect.

3.5

I found this book to be fascinating! So many little tidbits to be discovered. From subjects as different as the meanings of those little colored paint markings you find on your road, to big things like decisions in historic preservation. It just amazed me as to how my eyes have been opened to so many things in the city that I never knew, or even thought about.
And it's the type of book that you can read a page or two at your leisure, set the book down, and come back a week later and read a couple more pages. Told in easy to understand language, laced with cute line drawings, and highly educational.
A great book to increase all of our situational awareness of our surroundings.

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt is a fascinating collection of stories and descriptions that explain all sorts of things associated with city infrastructure. Many of these topics cover things that you’ve seen many times but may not have thought about or realized that there was an interesting backstory. The book is constructed in a way that you could read straight through in several sittings or you could pick up and read one two-page spread at a time to learn something new. While I appreciated the line drawings in the book and know that will give the book its distinctive style, I was constantly wanting to see photos instead. So I found myself going to Google for images to see “what does a mansard roof look like” or “photo of the Citicorp Center building” or “Austin moontower at night”. I will check this book out when it’s published in physical form. I voluntarily received and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book on Net Galley, all opinions are my own.

An interesting book that allows you to finally understand some of the mysterious signs and symbols that we see on our day to day life around towns and cities.

Don't confuse this book with Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities – they're really quite different things. This bumper pack of social history, engineering history and so on asks us to take a closer look at what makes a city, that we don't normally consider. Road layouts, and what gets put in the gap left behind once a railway line (or Berlin Wall) has been dug up, are here, as are so many amenities and parts of the infrastructure. That infrastructure has only grown and grown, from a gutter for the waste to proper sewers, pipes for this, that and the other – and will only expand. Here in the UK we've not quite got the continental heat that means Poland and other countries offer watering stations that hose you down with a very fine, cooling mist of water, but that's not far off coming with global warming. At least we don't have full hydrants to force open and waste all the water that way.

The book's very well presented, and definitely readable. I will say that some of the essays (such as the problems inherent in offering a universal, one-cost-for-all postal service) could be longer, while some are much less effective. One talking about the old-fashioned hand-written sign just says they had died off but are coming back and doesn't really do more with that than a bland introduction. But throughout the book you get an indication of how important these things are – things we thought trivial, if we thought of them at all. Perhaps the most surprising thing in these pages is not that the revolving door dates from the 1800s, but that the motion of those rubberised, bendy blokes outside car showrooms with fans beneath them blowing air through to keep them permanently active, is actually supposed to represent a real dance, from Trinidad and Tobago. How that's not more common knowledge I'll never know – after all, #blackjivesmatter. A strong four stars for this informative bundle of things you'd never have thought to find yourself reading about.

This is an interesting book about city design that is mostly unknown, but the lack of photos is really frustrating. There are graphic illustrations at times, but as another reviewer mentioned, you really want to see pictures of the elements that are described. Also, I thought it would be more about secret elements of every city but many of them are specific to certain cities or to large urban areas in general (I live in a town of 800). It's still a fascinating read, especially for urban dwellers and travelers.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

Reading The 99% Invisible City is like meeting a cool nerdy friend and being invited for a walk around the block. I like that the illustrations make it look like a graphic novel and lends an air of informality to it.
I will be definitely paying attention to different architectural and design features from now on when I walk or drive around.

Fascinating Text; Frustrating Lack of Illustrations

This book is loaded with odds and ends that run the gamut from well organized long form essays to factoids and bits of trivia. The structure is a touch idiosyncratic but makes reasonable sense overall. I guess that figures for a book drawn primarily from a popular podcast.

Here's the thing, though. No photos, no color, no detailed illustrations. Here and there is a bit of graphic doodling, or a little pen and ink sketch, or some clip art, and that's it. Consider this - an entire article about the distinctive colors and graphics used to identify emergency vehicles, illustrated with a black and white checkerboard stripe. An article about what the colored paint marks on sidewalks mean, with a single black and white diagram. A chapter about cityscape graphics, adverts, neon signs, and old time hand painted signage, without a single photo. This book refers often to matters of color, graphic design, visibility, and invisibility, yet offers no examples or images to illustrate a point, or to excite the reader's further interest or curiosity.

That said, there is in any event a lot here to like and enjoy. Especially when we get into discussions of infrastructure, power grids, traffic engineering, roadway design, elevators, and the like, a text based presentation serves perfectly well.

So, the content is fine and interesting, and the style of presentation is congenial and engaging. But the book could have been much more rewarding, entertaining, and informative. In that regard at least it felt like a lost opportunity to do something really exciting.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)