This insightful study of Chicago's new Central Area illuminates the ways in which the renovations of the past two decades have reconfigured the social as well as the physical landscape. By intermingling housing, retailing, entertainment, and business establishments, the Central Area fosters diverse uses of urban space and welcomes a diversity of users. If architecture embodies ideology and social relationships as Satler so clear documents, then, she argues, it also offers potential for reshaping the life of a city. Her work is creative and cutting edge, but in this accessibly written,...