The design of cities and buildings was for many centuries a unified activity. Standards for the integration of architecture and urban design were set by the patrons and builders of the Renaissance—that model society so many architects take as their most important precedent. But it is a precedent that depended on a common cultural sensibility and a relatively stable social organization, one that put aesthetic regulation in the hands of a few oligarchs and religious leaders. Today the situation has changed dramatically: democracy, urbanization, and technology have effectively separated architecture and urban design. This third volume of Precis will help keep alive the passion and commitments of all who contribute to Architecture in the Public Realm.