MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 05820nam a22004218i 4500
001 2012024685
003 DLC
005 20120627164933.0
008 120625s2013 txu b s001 0 eng
010 $a 2012024685
020 $a9780292719163 (hardback)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda
042 $apcc
043 $an-mx---
050 00 $aNA9070$b.W34 2013
082 00 $a711/.550972$223
084 $aARC005000$aHIS025000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aWagner, Logan.
245 10 $aAncient origins of the Mexican plaza :$bfrom primordial sea to public space /$cby Logan Wagner, Hal Box, and Susan Kline Morehead.
250 $aFirst [edition].
260 $aAustin :$bUniversity of Texas Press,$c2013.
263 $a1303
300 $apages cm
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
490 0 $aRoger Fullington series in architecture
520 $a"The plaza has been a defining feature of Mexican urban architecture and culture for at least 4,000 years. Ancient Mesoamericans conducted most of their communal life in outdoor public spaces, and today the plaza is still the public living room in every Mexican neighborhood, town, and city--the place where friends meet, news is shared, and personal and communal rituals and celebrations happen. The site of a community's most important architecture--church, government buildings, and marketplace--the plaza is both sacred and secular space and thus the very heart of the community.. This extensively illustrated book traces the evolution of the Mexican plaza from Mesoamerican sacred space to modern public gathering place. The authors led teams of volunteers who measured and documented nearly one hundred traditional Mexican town centers. The resulting plans reveal the layers of Mesoamerican and European history that underlie the contemporary plaza. The authors describe how Mesoamericans designed their ceremonial centers as embodiments of creation myths--the plaza as the primordial sea from which the earth emerged. They discuss how Europeans, even though they sought to eradicate native culture, actually preserved it as they overlaid the Mesoamerican sacred plaza with the Renaissance urban concept of an orthogonal grid with a central open space. The authors also show how the plaza's historic, architectural, social, and economic qualities can contribute to mainstream urban design and architecture today."--$cProvided by publisher.
520 $a"Spanning several thousand years of history, this book explores how sacred open space in Mesoamerican communities evolved into the familiar plaza at the heart of most Mexican towns and cities. Reveals that while the Spanish sought to eradicate Mesoamerican culture by building over their cities, they actually preserved the form and usage of the Mesoamerican plaza because Spanish cities were also laid out with a central open space. The authors show how, even today, the Mexican plaza has elements that can be traced back to ancient Mesoamerican culture and, as the site of the church or cathedral, remains a sacred, as well as secular, space"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 8 $aMachine generated contents note: Authors' Note -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One. The Primordial Sea: Forming Open Space in Mesoamerica -- Mesoamerican Concept of Space -- Mountains and Altepetls -- Caves, Quatrefoils, and Sunken Courts -- Types of Open Space in Mesoamerica -- Triad Centering * U-shaped Courts * Quadrangles -- Quincunx: Symbol of the Cosmos -- Ballcourts -- The Sunken Court of Teopantecuanitlan -- The Dallas Plaque: A Cosmogram -- Chapter Two. Forming Spanish Towns in Mesoamerican Culture -- People and Ideas -- The Invasion -- The Europeans Making Contact -- European Plazas in the Early Sixteenth Century -- Origins of the Plaza -- Building New World Towns -- Types of Towns * First Acts and Encounters -- Laws of the Indies -- Conversion -- Quincunx Patios -- Relaciones Geograficas -- Chapter Three. Sixteenth-Century Communal Open Spaces (Five Hundred Years Later) -- Caves and Crevices -- Amecameca, State of Mexico * Zoquizoquipan, Hidalgo * Valladolid, Yucatan -- Quincunxial Arrangements -- Atlatlahuacan, Morelos * Huejotzingo, Puebla * Huaquechula, Puebla * Zacualpan de Amilpas, Morelos -- Terraced Mountains -- Molango, Hidalgo * Achiutla, Oaxaca * Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca -- Sunken Courts -- Tepoztlan, Morelos * Tochimilco, Puebla * Calpan, Puebla -- Ballcourts and Bullrings -- Villa Díaz Ordaz, Oaxaca * Tlanalapa, Hidalgo * Tepeapulco, Hidalgo -- Open Space Ensembles -- Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca * Tlacolula, Oaxaca * Otumba de Gomez Farías, State of Mexico * Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca * Tepeaca, Puebla * Etla, Oaxaca -- Bishop Quiroga's Utopias in Michoacan -- Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan * Patzcuaro, Michoacan * Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacan * Erongarícuaro, Michoacan * Angahuan, Michoacan -- Visible Overlays and Deliberate Alignments -- Mitla, Oaxaca * Hacienda Xaaga, Oaxaca * Teposcolula, Oaxaca * Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca * Epazoyucan, Hidalgo -- The Yucatan Experience -- Yotholín, Yucatan * Tibolon, Yucatan * Izamal, Yucatan -- Chapter Four. Origins and Evolution -- Epilogue: Plazas in the Twenty-first Century -- The San Miguel Example -- Qualities of Successful Plazas -- Sprawl and the American Myth -- Appendix. Measured Drawings: Plans of Towns -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.
650 0 $aPlazas$zMexico$xHistory.
650 0 $aPublic spaces$zMexico$xHistory.
650 0 $aArchitecture and society$zMexico$xHistory.
650 7 $aARCHITECTURE / History / General.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aHISTORY / Latin America / Mexico.$2bisacsh
700 1 $aBox, Hal.
700 1 $aMorehead, Susan Kline.