The author takes an environment behaviour approach to this research, involving theories, concepts and methodologies related to environmental psychology, architecture, planning and urban design. Drawing on a range of comparative and contrasting empirical studies of historic city centres in the UK and Brazil, this book examines questions of commercial signage control management, the preservation of historic heritage and user preference and satisfaction. Several different commenrcial signage approaches are currently applied to different historic cities, but these initiatives are not based on principles derived from the perception and evaluation of users. While the issue of visual pollution, as this phenomenon is commonly described, has been widely debated, there is as yet no clear conclusion as to how best to control commercial signage and whether different urban contexts and people from different backgrounds and cultures have universal or distinct preferences.

The negative consequences that commercial signs can have on the visual quality of urban areas and further more, on people's quality of life, has been studied from both architectural, planning and psychological perspectives. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the problems that public spaces face because of the design of commercial signs. A must-read for city planners, town councils, architects, sign designers, concerned citizens, and anyone who cares about the appearance and vitality of America’s commercial streets, this heavily illustrated book is equally appealing to armchair historians, small-town enthusiasts, and lovers of Americana. Such reform, Treu argues, has suppressed originality and radically cleared away years of accumulated history based on the taste of a single generation.

Present-day controls have often led to a denuding of traditional commercial corridors. Several forces are at work: technological advances, design imagination and the media, corporate propaganda, customer needs, and municipal mandates.

The dynamic between individual businesses and the common good has a major effect on the appearance of our country's Main Streets. Combining advertising and architectural history, the book presents a full picture of the commercial landscape, including design adaptations made for motorists and the migration from Main Street to suburbia. Treu considers “common” architecture and its place-defining business signs as well as influential high-style design examples by taste-making leaders. From small-town squares to Broadway, State Street, and Wilshire Boulevard, Martin Treu follows design developments into the present and explores issues of historic preservation. Signs, Streets, and Storefronts addresses more than 200 years of signs and place-marking along America’s commercial corridors. Signs Streets and Storefronts Book Review:

House mapping with facade signage