How does a landmark become, after just a few generations, a landfill?  In Forgotten Philadelphia, Thomas Keels takes the reader through a lavishly illustrated journey through three centuries of Philadelphia's architecture: what was built, how the public perceived the value of certain buildings, and why those buildings were eventually demolished.  In writing that celebrates Philadelphia past without ever being sentimental, Keels describes a city that was always reinventing itself, filled with people who always had a very measured view of the worth and beauty of its public architecture.