“This important volume, [Signs, Streets, and Storefronts], by architect and environmental graphic designer Treu addresses American street front architecture and urban planning. Black-and-white photographs illustrate the history and development of commercial architecture in old city centers with important images of lost buildings that were demolished for improved transportation corridors. The author provides an insightful assessment of the American townscape and the unique individual character of commercial architecture. He thoroughly reviews sign types, character, and craftsmanship, and their significant impact on architectural design and city planning. Numerous color photographs highlight main street facades, ornamentation, and evolutionary changes in building designs to unify commercial design with the advancement of advertisements. Treu identifies the loss of character and meaning experienced today with homogenized strip shopping centers, and makes a compelling case for the role signs have in defining places as memorable and distinctive, with creative graphics and place-associated communication. Treu argues for recognition of building signs as part of the collective memory of common places of the past, and as an important reminder that one’s architectural heritage is found in everyday experiences with the attached meaning of particular places and context.”