This study examines traditions of architectural measure embedded in the design of streets and buildings in Philadelphia, a city long recognized for its ‘habitable’ urban scale. Four essays consider how urban architecture defines large and small thereby giving dimension and pace to daily life. Each examines the design of elements, such as the miniature architecture of church steeples above the rooftops and gargantuan systems underground, as part of a poetic urban composition. Each essay considers how the architects of Philadelphia used dimensions to carry broad mythic narratives and how these measures, their meaning, and the urban spaces they created have changed over the city’s history. Together, the essays offer architects a means to read Philadelphia and similar cities, so they may more effectively interpret the city in design.