What are some of your favorite books that deal directly or even tangentially with the many fields and sub-disciplines of urban planning?
From the classic texts of Jane Jacobs and William Whyte to Jeff Speck's Walkable City, list any non-fiction (or even fiction!) I could see Brave New World or 1984 piquing a planner's interest.
I will start with one old and one new:
The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of its Growth by Sam Bass Warner, Jr.
- great history lesson on the political and urban development of Philadelphia
Other People's Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made by Charles Bagli
- A little too heavy on the real estate finance perspective for my taste but offers an in-depth history and analysis of Stuyvesant Town from its initial development as a partnership between MetLife and NYC govt to its sale in 2006 and default in 2010.
From the classic texts of Jane Jacobs and William Whyte to Jeff Speck's Walkable City, list any non-fiction (or even fiction!) I could see Brave New World or 1984 piquing a planner's interest.
I will start with one old and one new:
The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of its Growth by Sam Bass Warner, Jr.
- great history lesson on the political and urban development of Philadelphia
Other People's Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made by Charles Bagli
- A little too heavy on the real estate finance perspective for my taste but offers an in-depth history and analysis of Stuyvesant Town from its initial development as a partnership between MetLife and NYC govt to its sale in 2006 and default in 2010.
