Key Planning Books

Question 1

How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, published in 1890.

Answer 1

This book resulted in housing reform in New York City.

Question 2

Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform by Ebenezer Howard, published in 1898.

Answer 2

This book initiated the Garden City movement.

Question 3

Wacker’s Manual of the Plan of Chicago by Walter Moody, published in 1912.

Answer 3

This book was adopted as a textbook for eighth graders in Chicago.

Question 4

Carrying Out the City Plan by Flavel Shurtleff, published in 1914.

Answer 4

This book was the first major textbook on city planning.

Question 5

Cities in Evolution by Patrick Geddess, published in 1915.

Answer 5

This book centers on regional planning, and Geddes is known as the “father of regional planning.”

Question 6

Planning of the Modern City by Nelson Lewis, published in 1916.

Answer 6

x

Question 7

Local Planning Administration by Ladislas Segoe, published in 1941.

Answer 7

This book was the first in the Green Book Series produced by the International City/County Management Association.

Question 8

Urban Land Use Planning by F. Stuart Chapin, published in 1957.

Answer 8

This book became a common textbook on land use planning.

Question 9

Image of the City by Kevin Lynch, published in 1960.

Answer 9

This book defines basic concepts within the city, such as edges and nodes. Read excerpts of Image of the City on Amazon.com.

Question 10

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, published in 1961.

Answer 10

Jacobs provided a critical look at planners and planning, with a special focus on the mistakes of urban renewal.

Question 11

Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson, published in 1962.

Answer 11

This book focuses on the negative effects of pesticides on the environment. Read excerpts of Silent Spring on Amazon.com.

Question 12

The Urban General Plan by TJ Kent, published in 1964.

Answer 12

x

Question 13

With Heritage So Rich edited by Alfred Reins, published in 1966.

Answer 13

This is a seminal book on historic preservation.

Question 14

Design with Nature by Ian McHarg, published in 1969.

Answer 14

This book focuses on conservation design using an overlay technique that was later the basis of GIS.

Question 15

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William Whyte, published in 1980.

Answer 15

This book promotes the use of environmental psychology and sociology in urban design.

Question 16

The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford (1972)

Answer 16

A history of the forms and functions of the city throughout the ages, and a prophecy for the future of cities and urban life. The City in History was awarded the National Book Award in 1962.

Question 17

Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice

Edited by Gary Hack, et al. (2009)

Answer 17

The eight chapters in Local Planning, roughly spanning from context to applications, consists of articles written by a wide range of experts-academics, practitioners, clients, and observers of planning.

Question 18

Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes

by Frederick Law Olmsted (1997)

Answer 18

Civilizing American Cities collects Olmsted’s plans for New York, San Francisco, Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, and Boston; his suburban plans for Berkeley, California and Riverside, Illinois; and a generous helping of his writings on urban landscape in general. These selections, expertly edited and introduced, are not only enjoyable but essential reading for anyone interested in the history–and the future–of America’s cities.

Question 19

The American City: What Works and What Doesn’t

by Alexander Garvin (1995)

Answer 19

This definitive sourcebook on urban planning points out what has and hasn’t worked in the ongoing attempt to solve the continuing problems of American cities. Hundreds of examples and case studies clearly illustrate successes and failures in urban planning and regeneration, including examples of the often misunderstood and maligned “Comprehensive Plan.”

Question 20

Good City Form by Kevin Lynch (1995)

Answer 20

Lynch looks at connections between human values and the physical forms of cities, sets requirements for a normative theory of city form, reviews earlier physical images of what utopian communities might be, sees what is to be learned from hellish images, and helps us place city forms into one or another of three theoretic constructs; cosmic or ceremonial centers, the machine city, and the city as an organism.

Question 21

The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream
by Peter Calthorpe (1993)

Answer 21

One of the strongest supporters of New Urbanism, architect and urban designer Peter Calthrope makes the case for compact, mixed-use development over the urban sprawl that has dominated much of the development in the past decades. Twenty-four regional plans are presented in the book, focusing on reducing dependance on the automobile and increasing the proximity between home, work, shopping and recreation.

Question 22

Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century
by Peter Geoffrey Hall (1996 Updated Edition)

Answer 22

Cities of Tomorrow is an overview of the ideas, events, and personalities that have shaped world urbanization since 1900. The book is organized into ten chapters that treat late 19th-century slums; mass-transit suburbs; the garden city movement; the genesis of regional planning; the ‘city beautiful’ crusade; the skyscraper city; the city of ‘sweat equity’; automobile suburbs; the city of theory; and contemporary urban redevelopment.

Question 23

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein (1976)

Answer 23

“Here’s how to design or redesign any space you’re living or working in – from metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space, and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous home, workplace, town will result” –San Francisco Chronicle. This handbook is designed for the layperson and aims to present a language which people can use to express themselves in their own communities or homes.

Question 24

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro (1975)

Answer 24

The tragic story of Robert Moses, whose use and abuse of power shaped the politics, the physical structure and even the problems of urban decline in New York.

Question 25

Edge City: Life on the New Frontier

by Joel Garreau (1992)

Answer 25

First there was downtown. Then there were suburbs. Then there were malls. Then Americans launched the most sweeping change in 100 years in how they live, work, and play–The Edge City.

Question 26

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape
by James Howard Kunstler (1995)

Answer 26

The Geography of Nowhere traces America’s evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.

Question 27

The Urban Villagers

by Herbert J. Gans (l962, updated 1982)

Answer 27

A report of a participant-observation study of an inner-city Boston neighborhood called the West End and, in particular, of the native-born Americans of Italian parentage who lived there with other ethnic groups.

Question 28

The Essential William Whyte

by William Hollingsworth Whyte (2000)

Answer 28

The result of William Whyte’s research is an extremely human, often amusing look at what goes on in our cities’ streets. The original title, City: Rediscovering the Center, is out of print. This edition is a collection of much of the original work.

Question 29

Nature’s Metropolis : Chicago and the Great West

by William Cronon (1992)

Answer 29

In this groundbreaking work, a former Yale University professor of history gives an environmental perspective on the history of 19th-century America. “No one has written about Chicago with more power, clarity, and intelligence than Cronon. Indeed, no one has ever written a better book about a city.” –Boston Globe

Question 30

Planning in the USA: Policies, Issues, and Processes

by Barry Cullingworth, and J. Barry Cullingworth (1997)

Answer 30

This comprehensive introduction to the policies, theory and practice of planning outlines land use, urban planning and environmental protection policies and explains the nature of the planning process.

Question 31

Great Streets

by Allan B. Jacobs (1995)

Answer 31

Which are the world’s best streets, and what are the physical, designable characteristics that make them great? To answer these questions, Allan Jacobs has surveyed street users and design professionals and has studied a wide array of street types and urban spaces around the world. With more than 200 illustrations, all prepared by the author, along with analysis and statistics, Great Streets offers a wealth of information on street dimensions, plans, sections, and patterns of use, all systematically compared.