Paris Vs. New York Vernacular landscape

View of Paris from a top a hill outside the city limits

View of midtown manhattan from atop the rocks inside      central park 

. The  picture of downtown Paris looks distinctively different from the pic of  midtown Manhattan.The essential difference in overlook of Paris and New York is grounded in each city's history.

 In the picture of Paris the streets seem to built on maze like street patterns. Some of the building look as if the were built haphazardly, they stick out of streets. The very narrow streets and multistory buildings create a sort of street wall that gives the streets intimate and cozy look on the streets

The streets of New York can be defined by their  grid pattern, the streets in this picture have a uniform design, you can see perfectly symmetrical long streets.  

What defines the character of Paris is centuries of  layered development. Paris is very old city and has gone through many transformations. The present city built over many times, and ancient structures are infused with modern structures throughout the city.

Construction in Paris date back to medieval times, before their was a notion of urban planning. when the city was originally built notions about control and order in urban spaces did not exist. Construction was not regulated therefore people built houses and streets crooked. Many streets in central Paris are narrow because they are very old.  The metropolis still retains a sense of this unplanned element.

New York's infrastructure was built in the 19th century, as the city expanded uptown the city designed very carefully planned streets and very wide and open streets to facilitate traffic.