Planning/Urban/Community Literature

[macca]

Your favourite books/materials on the subject we all love.

Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dea...merican_Cities

Geography of Nowhere
&
Home from Nowhere - James Howard Kunstler http://www.kunstler.com

Architecture: Choice or Fate - Leon Krier http://zakuski.utsa.edu/krier/

A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander www.patternlanguage.com/

[Ruckus]

My current reading material:

The Power Broker - Robert Moses and the fall of New York - Author: Robert A. Caro

I first heard of this book after a SSP member likened Robert Moses to someone or something in their particular city (I think it had to do with demolishing buildings...may have been in a Calgary thread). Not knowing who Robert Moses was I quickly looked him up, I was blown away! The scope and pace of his achievements was incredible, almost seemed like fiction. After reading brief descriptions, I wanted to learn more and found a definitive book about Robert Moses, a 1300+ page book detailing Moses' influence in New York and indeed across the U.S.A.

I haven't read too many books on urban development, but the valuable insights gained through this book is unmatched, great read for aspiring politicians, planners, and realtors...and the general public.


The Developers - Author: James Lorimer

Details the growing post-war presence of a corporate development industry in Canada, and highlights specific projects throughout Canadian cities, both large and small.


Building a Dream - The Co-operative Retailing System in Western Canada 1928-1988 - Author: Brett Fairbairn

Not really urban planning related, but it gives a historic account of the developing co-op retail system in Western Canada; a glimpse into the importance of the co-op in cities and towns, especially so for smaller centres.

[molasses]

I'll put together a long list later, but for now, I'll expand this to include websites...

http://www.urbanism.org - a newsfeed of urban development articles from major newpapers/websites/blogs etc. around the world. One of the best sites for keeping up to date on what's going on.

as for author's, shockingly, macca listed my favorites, but add:

Christopher Alexander - The Timeless way of building (actually any of his stuff is worth reading)
James Howard Kunstler - The long emergency

Christopher Leinberger - The Option of Urbanism
A great book from a real estate developer/planner on the current rise of dense urban development (and the impending fall of the suburb). He's getting quoted every other week in major newspapers it seems.
http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&i...result#PPP9,M1

Charles Landry - The Art of City Making & Creative Cities
a couple of the best books on how culture/creativity and space for culture to develop is so important to a cities success.

[Echoes]

John Lorinc - The New City
“This optimistic vision of inclusive, healthy, workable, civil, and humane cities animates The New City, a book that leaves the reader both better informed and more hopeful about Canada's urban future.”
—from the Foreword by Anne Golden Source

Robert Bruegmann - Sprawl: A Compact History

Currently reading Death and Life by Jane Jacobs that macca mentionned.

Next to read: Richard Florida - The Rise of the Creative Class

[caveat.doctor]

I'm jealous of you guys/girls who actually get to study this stuff. Me I just get by with living in random cities and reading what their planning departments come out with, and comparing them against each other and Regina, eg


Vancouver


Singapore


Ottawa

I actually recommend it: live in as many cities as you can, get to know them, and contrast them with your home town. It's kind of neat to read brochures of what cities say about themselves and their plans and get to actually experience what they highlight as their planning successes (and failures - sign of a responsible City, when they discuss their failures too) and be an armchair critic. Though of course it needs a degree or three to do it justice.

How about a film? Radiant City is a fantastic documentary about city planning and suburban sprawl. It mixes expert commentary with the story of a family getting used to suburban life (it's funner than I'm making it sound) and there's a lot of Canadian content.

[Ruckus]

A few weeks later and I've finished "The Developers" and "Building a Dream".

Still slowly working my way through "The Power Broker".

Went to the library today and randomly surveyed the land development section on the 3rd floor, found nothing of interest. Made my way to the 6th floor to check out the planning and urban design sections and found myself three books

Urban Design Reader (Paperback)
by Matthew Carmona (Author), Steve Tiesdell (Author)


City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (Paperback)
by David Sucher (Author)



The Urban Prairie (Hardcover)
by Dan Ring (Author), Guy Vanderhaeghe (Author), George Melnyk (Author)

I've already finished reading this book, really fascinating, very déjà vu context.

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[hexrae]

While not literature, I do listen to the smartcityradio.com podcast.

[1ajs]

hmm that urban prarie book is one i think i will add to my colection sometime down the road

funny how that first shot shows mostly winnipeg buildings though we are so spoiled here

[Ruckus]

New reading material:

The City in the Greek and Roman World by E. J. Owens (Author) "The city was one of the fundamental institutions of the ancient world and as such was not confined to the civilisations of Greece and Rome..."


How I discovered the above book:

It was a Friday, I was sitting in the break room reading an urban design book when another employee asked what I was reading. After a quick explanation, he said he has an essay on Roman cities explaining why the Romans built their cities the way they did. So, a few days later he brings the essay, I read it over and find it very fascinating. The essay was actually a chapter out of a book, so I looked the book up and sure enough the U of S has a copy.

After that turn of events, I am now going to dive into ancient city planning with the above book, and another text I randomly grabbed from the shelf

The random book:

From Mycenae to Constantinople: Major Cities of the Greek and Roman World by Richa Tomlinson (Author) "The architecture of our cities varies with their political functions ..."


I'm thinking these books will read like an episode of "Digging for the Truth", good educational programming.