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Rating: 
Summary: A Meticulous Study of Hotel Culture and the SRO Crisis
Review: Living Downtown is an evocative study of residence hotels, a misunderstood and often maligned type of housing stock. The book is effectively split into two parts: an examination of types of residence hotels and a discussion of how progressive ideals became policies that would instigate the SRO crisis following World War II. In his exploration of the history of residence hotels, Groth categorizes the structures into four categories based on class and presents anecdotes and newspaper accounts to paint a picture of how their residents and owners once lived, worked and interacted. The balance of the book is given over to analysis of how the attitudes of a few urban critics came to set national and local policies regarding housing and residence hotels, and how the demolition of the latter would create housing crises in cities across the country. Numerous schematic drawings and photographs show the layout of various residence hotels and the context of the neighborhoods in which they existed. Groth relies heavily on San Francisco examples to prove his points, but he presents cases from other cities as well, though sometimes in passing. Overall this book does an excellent job of explaining the residence hotel and the roots of the SRO crisis. Architects, planners, historians and even sociologists should find it an absorbing read.
Rating:
Summary: A Meticulous Study of Hotel Culture and the SRO Crisis
Review: Living Downtown is an evocative study of residence hotels, a misunderstood and often maligned type of housing stock. The book is effectively split into two parts: an examination of types of residence hotels and a discussion of how progressive ideals became policies that would instigate the SRO crisis following World War II. In his exploration of the history of residence hotels, Groth categorizes the structures into four categories based on class and presents anecdotes and newspaper accounts to paint a picture of how their residents and owners once lived, worked and interacted. The balance of the book is given over to analysis of how the attitudes of a few urban critics came to set national and local policies regarding housing and residence hotels, and how the demolition of the latter would create housing crises in cities across the country. Numerous schematic drawings and photographs show the layout of various residence hotels and the context of the neighborhoods in which they existed. Groth relies heavily on San Francisco examples to prove his points, but he presents cases from other cities as well, though sometimes in passing. Overall this book does an excellent job of explaining the residence hotel and the roots of the SRO crisis. Architects, planners, historians and even sociologists should find it an absorbing read.
Rating:
Summary: You won't find these hotels in any travel guide
Review: Much has been written about luxury hotels, but Paul Groth has chosen an overlooked subject: the bottom-rung hotels, often known as SROs (single-room occupancy), that serve as homes for those at the margins of society. Groth is an architecture professor who has actually lived in such places, which gives a refreshing personal touch to the book. He discusses the physical characteristics of such buildings, combined with a sympathetic description of who lives in them and what their lives are like. At the end of the book, Groth argues that SRO residents have been overlooked in urban renewal, and he explains how naive it is to expect that demolition of SROs will cause their residents to disappear. The book has a distinct San Francisco emphasis. There are over 150 illustrations, mostly photos, but also including 12 floor plans. If you've ever wondered about the down-and-out hotels that are in every town and city, Paul Groth explains what is behind the facades.
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