Gotham City and Alan Furst

Gotham City was shaped by set designer Alan Furst. Literally.

Sam Hamm's script described Gotham looking as if "Hell erupted through the pavement and built a city." (Source) 

We guess we can call the designer Alan "Hell" Furst, because his vision of a crowded retro-Art Deco world reshaped Gotham City forever.

Batman comic writers were so inspired by Furst's design that they wrote a comic in which bad guys blew up Gotham City and reshaped its buildings in the shape of those from the 1989 film. (Source) 

That's quite the legacy, and maybe an even more impressive one than Furst's Oscar win for Best Art Direction in 1990.