Abstract
The design methodology of the urban designer is similar to that of the architect working on an individual building. Both are dependent upon the medium of drawings to explore problems and initiate solutions. For this reason, the types of drawings and their conventions of represnetation are of critical importance to the urban designer. The following article traces the difficulties of currently available urban drawings for the urban designer. The author identifies critical characteristics of useful urban design drawings, and elaborates on a number of cartographic representations that provide useful paradigms.