__Edited by Chris Wilson and Stefanos Polyzoides Contemporary Photography by Miguel Gandert Drawings edited by José Zelaya San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2011

__This landmark book documents the rich heritage of New Mexico’s public plazas, and the everyday life and community celebrations that help sustain them. It traces three distinct design traditions — the Native American center place with kiva and terraced residential blocks, the Hispanic plaza with church and courtyard houses, and the Anglo square with courthouse and business blocks.

__New Mexico’s plazas, like urban spaces everywhere, are gaining renewed attention at a time when the challenges of sustainability have sparked the New Urbanism and Smart Growth movements, urban revitalization, and intensified interest in historic preservation. This book brings to life three valuable urban design traditions, while profiling recent plaza revitalization projects, and newly-designed community plazas.

• » 100 Site plans, elevation drawings, bird’s-eye views, and comparative diagrams
• » 120 Captivating historic photographs
• » 100 Compelling photos by renowned documentary photographer, Miguel Gandert

__Contributors include a distinguished array of historians, architects, and preservationists, an anthropologist, a geographer, and a planner. The book is valuable for community leaders, politicians, designers, planners, and developers facing similar issues elsewhere in the country and the world. But even where the climate or mixture of cultures is significantly different, The Plazas of New Mexico provides a model for other studies of urban design tradition and practice. The result is a landmark study of these historic plazas and their 1,000-year history.