In some ways creating this book was driven by a desire to make walking around cities an official part of our jobs. Walking allows us to take in details at a human pace. We remember thinking we needed a new creative focus after finally finishing
Portlandness. In part we decided the next book should be about the cities in which we most wanted to spend time walking.
At first, the working title and vision for the project was
Transects. We thought that choosing five routes through each city would provide us with a solid platform from which to create maps and graphics, write essays, and tell stories. After working with that idea for about a year we decided that the concept was too limiting so we refocused on a cultural atlas in the spirit of
Portlandness...