Lynch's The Image of the City after 50 Years: City Marketing Lessons from an Urban Planning Classic

Abstract

Exactly half a century ago, the MIT-scholar Kevin Lynch published The Image of the City (1960). The book was agenda-setting, thanks to its original approach to the way people perceive the urban environment. Over the years, The Image of the City has become a classic among urban planners. Fifty years after its publication the study is still highly topical and relevant. In this contribution, we argue that not only urban planners, but also city marketers can learn from Lynch's most cited book. The framework Lynch devised to assess urban areas is of great use for cities that look for a distinctive image to market themselves. After a short review of the book, we explore the opportunities of the Lynchian framework for city marketing. Next we briefly discuss case examples of three European cities: the Finnish capital of Helsinki, Bielefeld in the German region of Westphalia and the old industrial city of Enschede in the Netherlands. The paper concludes by suggesting city marketers to do a “picture postcard test” to examine the link between the city's built environment and the city's marketing.