Books & Literature Flashcards
The Urgent Future
1967, Albert Mayer
To expose the abuse of statistics in planning to justify the continuation of what has always been.
How the Other Half Lives
1890, Jacob Riis
Photojournalism of NY City slums, squalid living conditions, child labor, and crime.
Feminine Mystique
1963, Betty Friedman
Explores the assumptions that women were fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. The prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan wanted to prove that women were unsatisfied and could not voice their feelings.
The Disappearing City
1932, Frank Lloyd Wright
Outlined his concept for the Broadacre city - a new type of city that would flow across the landscape and change with the terrain and the needs of the individual citizen.
Core concept: completely disperse the modern city and give each family at least an acre of land.
In 1935, Wright created a 12-foot by 12-foot model showcasing his concept and exhibited at the Rockefeller Center.
Cities in Evolution
1915, Patrick Geddes
Linked social reform and the urban env, looked at cities comprehensively.
All planning should preserve the unique historic character of the city and involve citizens in the planning of its development, two themes that would reemerge in the 1950s and 1960s
Neighborhood Unit
1929, Clarence Perry
Perry developed the concept of the
neighborhood unit and believed cities
should be aggregates of smaller units
that serve as a focus of community. He
promoted public neighborhood space
and pedestrian scale.
Modern Housing
1934, Catherine Bauer-Wurster
Both an assessment and a political
demand for a housing movement to
support low rent housing, this book
helped rally interest and concern in
housing needs in America. It advocated
for the role of government in assuring
housing for all.
The Image of the City
1960s, Kevin Lynch
Each indiv has a set of unique images that, together, make for their image of a city.
5 elements of city image - paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks
Seen as humanistic reaction against modernist planning principles.
The City in History
1960s, Lewis Mumford
traces the development of cities from ancient
Greece and Rome to the modern forms of suburb and megalopolis.
Mumford describes the genesis of cities and
analyzes their purpose in a sweeping narrative that proposes a more “organic” and humane relationship between people and their environment.
Mumford helped popularize planning for the general public through his Skyline feature in The New Yorker
The Urban General Plan
1960s, T.J. Kent
The goal of planning was no longer an ideal state, but “an activity stream relating to problems and goal definition, program design and evaluation.”
Kent exemplified the change and provided a history of the use, characteristics, and purpose of the urban comprehensive plan, and how it was currently being applied.
The Power Broker
1974, Robert Caro
Journalist Caro grapples with the motivation, methods, and impacts of Moses, a builder of New York public works who abjured planning as a discipline but understood how to “get
things done.”
This book was especially influential in how it crystallized the change in values that had taken place over the 20th century, with large-scale patriarchal Modernist planning falling
out of favor.
The Social Life of Small Urban Places
1980, William Whyte
Study of human interactions in NYC’s parks and plazas. Began a mini-revolution in urban planning and sociable urban design. Responsibility to create healthy public spaces.
Edge City
1991, Joel Garreau
Chronicles the transition in urban growth from the historic development of “down town” to suburban expansion to what he labels as the “new frontier” of urban life.
Rural by Design
1994, Randall Arendt
Growing out of his work in New England and an appreciation for the design of small communities, Arendt revealed how towns could grow and maintain their character through density, good site planning, and
compatible design.
His work reinforced efforts to achieve growth management, address sprawl, and the conserve natural and cultural landscapes.
The Rise of the Creative Class
2002, Richard Florida
