09:43 Mar 22, 2011 

It is Aranjuez

14:07 Mar 21, 2011 

The thing is I wouldn't use it alone, because "landmarks" is so often used for big monuments and buildings that do not necessarily lead the eye, or the person, from one point to another. I think that the tag "which serve as visual reference points" helps it match the Spanish.

14:01 Mar 21, 2011 

Well, if the expression is being used with Lynch in mind, "landmarks" is the term to use. Perhaps, after all, it is not essential to mention perspective. I really wonder whether anything vital is lost if this is reduced to "visual landmarks". "Landmarks" are, after all, reference points by definition, and "perspectivos" is most certainly visual, however one chooses to express it. I suspect you won't be happy with this! Anyway, it's not my problem, and Lorna will decide.

13:43 Mar 21, 2011 

I think it is the way that Kevin Lynch's theory has been translated. I looked for milestones first, then landmarks, before it hit me that the text was refering to guiding visual reference points. I think "hito" was chosen in Spanish because of the word's connection to historical events that are often reflected either in a monument, or in alterations to the urban plan that mark a specific period of time. (Haussmann's dramatic renovation of Paris that embodies the era of Napoleon III, for example). Tourist routes in European cities pick up on this, guiding people between visual (and historical) reference points throughout the city.

13:34 Mar 21, 2011 

I must admit I have doubts about it too, which is why I didn't post it! But thinking about how perspective views used to be executed (for example Wenceslaus Hollar's Long View of London, showing the Globe Theatre, which I have on the wall of my flat), I still think the "reference point" idea is paramount. Indeed, given the central place of the formal study of perspective in the period when Aranjuez was being laid out, I really wonder whether these "hitos" were deliberately placed with perspective in mind.
"Hitos perspectivos" seems to be a very unusual term, but I did find it in one place, referring to the Gran Vía in Madrid:
"Determinados edificios poseen valor tanto por su propio diseño como por su función como hitos perspectivos que conectan visualmente los distintos tramos del eje, y actúan como referencia desde los espacios traseros."
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42388639/Ciudad-Territorio-y-Paisa... p. 42,

13:24 Mar 21, 2011 

As a response to an interesting question posed by Charles, I found: Topic : Controlling 3D Perspective Reference Point ... Re: Controlling 3D Perspective Reference Point Posted: Aug 19, 2009 11:39 PM in ...
discussions.apple.com › ... › Final Cut Studio › Motion, amongst othr references that point to the use of that term as a very technical, reductionist term that doesn't square with the idea of an organised, but not rigid, city design.

12:51 Mar 21, 2011 

it would help to be able to look at online photos and other texts... are you able to tell us which place this is? I have tried but have come up with both Aranjuez and Melilla, and it may be another place altogether