Baton Rouge's unique past has shaped the city that we live in today. The layout of the city's streets, the arrangement of prominent government and religious structures, the clustering of businesses, the distribution of residential neighborhoods, and the placement of parks and schools all speak to the long term processes of urban growth. Society invests tremendous effort in creating its urban centers and citizens develop attachments to those places. It is the investment of human effort that stimulates a sense of place and allows individuals to develop strong feelings about their home city. Sense of place is constantly reinforced by contact with the common, everyday landscapes that surround us. In Baton Rouge, the two principal university campuses, the state government complex, along with various historic neighborhoods and structures all stand as perpetual reminders of the city's past. Many familiar and, at the same time, unique landscape features of Baton Rouge shape our sense of place.

Much has been written about the distinctive buildings that come to mind when Baton Rouge is mentioned, but what of the larger districts and neighborhoods? Residents generally are most familiar with their immediate surroundings or those places where they work and play and these surroundings ofter constitute more than a building or two. Children comprehend their immediate neighborhoods and those who move about a city come to know and develop ideas about the city's larger units. Geographers and planners like to think of cities in terms of these larger assemblages