Placenotes Austin

"The Placenotes cards are a novel idea for someone who craves great travel information, whether visiting in person or simply browsing at home. I love the way the stories behind the buildings amplify the experience of the place."

—Michael Graves, Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, Princeton University

"The world is made of real places. It's especially important, in a media-dominated culture, to reacquaint ourselves with that truth. Placenotes is a fresh, ingenious, and practical way to accomplish that goal."

—Robert Campbell, Pulitzer-Prize-winning architecture writer, Boston Globe

As everywhere looks more and more like nowhere, we seek out places that make us feel as though we are somewhere. This is the key concept behind Placenotes, a wholly new kind of travel guide that highlights the buildings, landscapes, landmarks, and cultural and commercial institutions that create a unique "sense of place." Each Placenotes card has a vivid color photograph of a featured place, along with engaging text that explains what makes the place significant and provides all the practical details people need to plan their visit. Maps, graphics, and symbols provide easy-to-understand information.

Placenotes is the creation of Kevin Keim, Director of the Charles W. Moore Center for the Study of Place in Austin, Texas. The Moore Center was founded in 1994 to advocate good places, design, and architecture. Charles Moore, a respected architect, educator, and writer, believed that "it is altogether likely that inhabitants themselves can be trusted to know where the real places on the planet are, to go to them, from Disneyland to the Athenian Acropolis, and to send postcards back when the places have spoken to them, and they perceived, with great good feeling, that they were somewhere." Placenotes could be those cards, written by local people who know the genuine places in their communities.