Geneva as it looked in 1850 is a near perfect example of traditional European urbanism, before cars, chain stores, suburbs. Sharply defined: the city gives way to the countryside just across the street, respecting the integrity of both rural and urban ways of life. 
The entire city has only four routes into it, passing through defensive works and official gates, lending it both dignity and a certain urban gravitas. The city as a form has not yet given way to the utility gird, nor has it become a mere node in a global traffic network.
The digital model, the work of over 100 people in a 5 year project compares well to contemporary photos and paintings of the city. It must have been a wonderful city to live in.
There is a wide variety of business, homes, neighborhoods, buildings, representing all eras of the city. By conforming to natural limitations in terms of building techniques and materials the city achieves the harmony that no book of codes in any modern city could ever enforce.
The skyline (here in an impossible high view but the point remains) is dominated by the buildings that define the civic aspirations of the community: faith (churches), order (courts), beauty (trees are encouraged to grow above the roofline whenever possible).
To say that we can not build like this again is a lie. In the case of Geneva, as in many town and cities around the world, we even have the blue prints for almost all major buildings. Some cities even have complete records from the 18th century onwards. From prisons to hospitals.
Geneva in the 1850s was perfectly human scaled. You could walk from East gate to West gate in about 30 minutes. There was no need for costly transit systems, carriages or horses. Nor was there any need to sacrifice urban space for parks: nature was never more than 15 mins. away!
To us moderns the city would have offered an almost unimaginable soundscape: conversations, church bells, the calling of the hour by the nightwatchmen, occasionally clattering hooves on pavement. Close the windows and the thick stone walls offered almost perfect silence.
You can see for yourself (if you can master the clunky navigation system), a "streetview" of Geneva in 1850. making-of.geneve1850.ch/3D/EN/#1850_Ge…
In May 1856 the American Reverend John Ellis Edwards visited Geneva and wrote about the approach to the city. I have visited a fair amount of cities in my life and never have I come close to anything a fraction as charming as what the good Rev. must have seen!
Rev. John E. Edwards did not have too much luck with the weather during his short stay in Geneva, but on Sunday the 12th of May 1856 skies were clear and he took the opportunity to walk around the city and take in the delightful views.
My favorite part of the Reverend's account (he was from Petersburg, Virgina, by the way), is the one about the happy and industrious Swans of Lake Geneva. Every great European city ought to have Swans!
Sort of Post Scriptum: The fortifications of Geneva were taken down on the orders of the hothead intellectual huguenot James Facy who murdered his way to power in the revolution of 1846. Because of course. Here's David Bogue in 1853, also with the story of how Rousseau ran away.
