Architectural Legacies: Thessaloniki – Istanbul, Four Hundred Years of Interwoven History was first exhibited at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico in 2012. This catalog includes reproductions of all original panels, and provides additional annotation. All together, the panels contain over 350 images taken, processed, and composed by author and photographer Mark Forte.



From the text:



"I believe that our image of a city is like a spider web, structured with long radiating lines, which help us give meaning to the city by connecting us at the center to the greater world around us. These lines are rooted in ourselves and in our understanding of the world. We connect these anchoring lines with many lateral lines of gathered information and experiences, giving us a deeper understanding of the whole. Like a spider web, our image is strong, yet gossamer. It is mostly empty, in fact. And like the spider itself, we must constantly reconstruct our web, filling gaps and strengthening it as experience allows. Still, the web remains mostly empty, relying on our understanding of the world to complete the image."