Reviews

Visualizing and Analyzing Plans with CityCAD

Planning technology expert Charles A. Donley reviews a new piece of software that combines the worlds of Computer-Aided Design and Geographic Information Systems to help site planners visualize and analyze their plans.

30 July 2009 - 9:00am

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REVIEW: Welcome to the Urban Revolution

In his new book Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World, Jeb Brugmann proposes a new way of thinking about citybuilding. Planetizen Correspondent Michael Dudley has this review.

24 June 2009 - 5:00am

Histories of No History: Commodification and Urbanization in the American West

Josh Stephens reviews two biographies of cities, The Dallas Myth: The Making and Unmaking of An American City and Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City.

1 June 2009 - 5:00am

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Observe, Transform, Model, Interpret

These are just a few of the ways Prof. Peter Bosselman of UC Berkeley analyzes the built environment in his latest book, Urban Transformation: Understanding City Design and Form. Julia Galef brings us this review.

14 May 2009 - 5:00am

Small Town Apocalyptic Values

Josh Stephens reviews James Howard Kunstler's novel of post-peak oil existence, World Made By Hand.

24 July 2008 - 5:00am

The City as Factory

Josh Stephens reviews "The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City", by Elizabeth Currid -- a look at the planning, sociology, and history behind New York's creative economy. While Currid's observations and theories are enlightening and sometimes entertaining, the book misses its opportunity to establish a strong case for planning's role in the cultivation of a creative economy, says Stephens.

11 February 2008 - 5:00am

Modernism In Fragments

Nathan Glazer's From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City reveals how this influential social movement's good intentions shaped the look of the 20th century.

24 September 2007 - 9:45am

Book Review: Worthy Of The Nation

The second edition of this seminal historical planning study of Washington, D.C. offers readers an in-depth look at the city's birth and creation.

16 July 2007 - 10:00am

Top Books - 2007

Planetizen Top 10 Books List, 2007 Edition

Top Books 2007 Planetizen is pleased to release its sixth annual list of the ten best books in the planning field.

20 November 2006 - 5:24pm

The Real And The Unreal: Perceptions And Articulations Of The City In Novels And Film

Are the city and the metaphor of the city, as depicted in film and literature, one in the same? In Cityscapes: Cultural Readings in the Material and Symbolic City, Ben Highmore highlights familiar cultural texts in an attempt to show how artists capture the essence of the rhythm, networks, and contradictions of city life, writes Planetizen Correspondent Lainie Herrera in this book review.

11 July 2006 - 7:00am

Book Review: 'Better Models for Development in Pennsylvania'

In Better Models for Development in Pennsylvania, author Ed McMahon outlines the best ways to harness inevitable urban growth and development without sacrificing a community's character, natural resources, and sense of place. As reviewer Tom Kane finds, these rules apply not only to Pennsylvania, but across the country.

19 June 2006 - 7:00am

Book Review - 'Sprawl: A Compact History'

With Sprawl: A Compact History, author Robert Bruegmann has become a favorite sprawl apologist, yet his flawed arguments and dismissal of the most serious concerns of the anti-sprawl movement ultimately add little to the prevailing land use debate of our time, writes Josh Stephens in this book review.

13 June 2006 - 7:00am

Book Review - 'Imagined Cities'

A comparison of six 19th- and 20th-Century authors shows that the complex character of urban areas can be interpreted in ways beyond physical experience, as exemplified by the language used in fiction to chronicle the "stimuli of the city", writes Lainie Herrera in this review of Robert Alter's Imagined Cities.

6 June 2006 - 7:00am

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Book Review - 'Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America'

In his "deeply insightful yet broadly accessible narrative of environmental progress", former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt chronicles the battles of environmental and land use law in the United States, with specific strategies for success at the local, state, and federal levels.

12 April 2006 - 7:00am

Book Review - 'Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination'

Bob Ransford reviews the magical and often paradoxical relationship Vancouver shares with its natural surroundings as described in Lance Berelowitz's Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination.

21 September 2005 - 8:00am

Top 10 Books - 2005

The following list of top 10 books published in 2004 was compiled by the Planetizen editorial staff based on a number of criteria, including editorial reviews, sales rankings, popularity, Planetizen reader nominations, number of references, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions.

4 September 2005 - 10:46am

Top 10 Books - 2004

The following list of top 10 books published in 2003 was compiled by the Planetizen editorial staff based on a number of criteria, including editorial reviews, sales rankings, popularity, Planetizen reader nominations, number of references, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions.

4 September 2005 - 10:40am

Top 10 Books - 2003

The Planetizen 2003 List features the top 10 popular titles published in 2002. The Planetizen 20 features the all-time top 20 planning titles that every planner and developer should read. Planetizen has partnered with Amazon.com to enable you to purchase any title by selecting the link, "Buy this book."

4 September 2005 - 10:30am