The 100 "Best" Books on City-Making Ever Written?

I usually don't associate happiness with things, "stuff," material goods, but I have to admit that there are few things that make me happier than my books. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved libraries and book stores, and when I saw that a childhood friend's home had a room full of floor-to-ceiling book shelves, I knew that one day I would have to have a room like that. It's unlikely that I'll ever embrace the growing trend of downloading books on tablets - for me, there's simply nothing quite like sitting in my “library” (the enclosed balcony in our downtown apartment), surrounded by my favourite books on city-making.

I like to claim that I have the most extensive library of books on urbanism of any city-making practitioner - at least for any non-professor! If anyone would care to challenge my possible self-delusion, bring it on!

Back in the early 2000's when I was Plan Canada's contributing editor for book reviews, I wrote a piece on the 10 most important urban design books ever written. It was in the days before such articles would end up online, so I haven’t been able to find it - at least not without digging through boxes in storage that I haven't touched in years.

I remember that the list included some of the more obvious greats like Jacobs (both of them, Jane & Allan), Whyte, Alexander, Unwin, Cullen, and others that may or may not still be in print - I wish I could remember all 10. Even if I could, would I pick exactly the same 10 today? I doubt it, since the books out there, and I, have changed a lot since then.

Regardless, with so many more books on the shelves now than I had 12 years ago, why would I stop at the top 10? Why not the top 100? In fact, it would be tough to pick just 100!

So, in looking over my bookshelves tonight, here are 100 of my favourite books on city-making that I’ve collected and read over the years. Many are quite old, but still completely relevant. Others are only a decade or two old, but may not as relevant as they once were... but they are included because they were very meaningful and valuable to me at the time I read them.

Many are possibly not in print anymore, but are worth keeping an eye out for, particularly in used bookstores (that may be where I myself bought them – my favorite place to buy books on urbanism used to be used/antiquarian bookstores). I still remember the days I found my cherished copies of Camillo Sitte's "The Art of Building Cities" (1945) and Charles Mulford Robinson's "Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful" (1909) in their respective stores. But don't worry, if you don't love the classics like I do, I’ve bolded the relatively newer books in the list, to help you focus on more recent publications. While I was at it, I’ve italicized the books that I think were written to be particularly readable and entertaining to the non city-making professional – something I think more books should strive to achieve.

Some books on this list I actually disagree with - maybe they’ve been part of the problem, or part of the failing of city-building since the mid-20^th century. Regardless, I still enjoyed reading them because they made me think or challenged my assumptions. Other classic books in my library that I disagree with, like those written by Le Corbusier & Frank Lloyd Wright (who had terrible ideas about, and effects on, cities), I just couldn't bring myself to include, even though I considered it important to read them for educational reasons.

Are these books really the "best" books in my library? I confess, I deliberately misled you in the title of this post because I thought it sounded like a better title than "100 favourite books." "Best" is a term I don't usually use, as it is highly subjective. Really, is there a “better” book than Jacobs’ “Death and Life?” Likely not, but I’ve put two others ahead of it, as they had just a bit more of a unique influence on me, likely in part because the authors have become both mentors and friends. So don't expect this list to be “scientific” – it’s highly emotional, and personal. These may not be the best in my library, but I can say that at this particular moment in time, they are my favourites.

Lastly, don't take the specific ranking too seriously – I didn't really agonize over whether I liked a particular book 22nd, 24th, or 30^th. But it’s close enough for you to get the picture.

So here goes, from last to first.

	100. Sustainable Communities Sim Van der Ryn and Peter Calthorpe
	99. Design with Nature Ian McHarg
	98. Ecocities Richard Register
	97. Highline: the Inside Story of New York City's Park In The Sky David and Hammond
	96. The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler
	95. Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination Lance Berelowitz
	94. Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future Matt Hern
	93. Building Barcelona Peter Rowe
	92. Cities Back from the Edge: New Life For Downtown Roberta Brandes Gratz and Norman Mintz
	91. Urban Design and the Bottom Line: Optimizing the Return on Perception Dennis Jerke, Douglas Porter, Terry Lassar
	90. Delirious New York Rem Koolhaas (I like his writing much better than his architecture.)
	89. The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning John Sewell
	88. Sprawl Repair Manual Galina Tachieva
	87. Public Sydney: Drawing the City Thalis and Cantrill
	86. Agricultural Urbanism Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland
	85. Learning from Las Vegas Robert Venturi et al
	84. Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities Southworth and Ben-Joseph
	83. Cities and Natural Process Michael Hough
	82. Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture Witold Rybczynski
	81. The Principles of Green Urbanism: Transforming the City for Sustainability Steffen Lehmann
	80. Smart Cities Anthony Townsend (it's this high because I haven't finished reading it!)
	79. Civilizing American Cities Frederick Law Olmsted
	78. City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age P.D. Smith
	77. The New City John Lorinc
	76. Designing Community: Charrettes,Master Plans and Form-Based Codes David Walters
	75. The Option of Urbanism Christopher Leinberger
	74. City Making in Paradise: Nine Decisions that Saved Vancouver Mike Harcourt and Ken Cameron
	73. The Wealth of Cities John Norquist
	72. The Geography of Hope Chris Turner
	71. The Great Good Place Ray Oldenburg
	70. Urban Code: 100 Lessons for Understanding the City Mikoleit & Purckhauer
	69. The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space Don Mitchell
	68. The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit-Oriented Development Hank Dittmar and Gloria Ohland
	67. The Fractured Metropolis Jonathan Barnett
	66. Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder Ken Greenberg
	65. Wrestling with Moses Anthony Flint
	64. E-Topia: "Urban Life, Jim – But Not As We Know It" William Mitchell (& City of Bits)
	63. The Next American Metropolis Peter Calthorpe
	62. Grand Urban Rules Alex Lehnerer
	61. The Language of Towns and Cities: A Visual Dictionary Dhiru Thadani
	60. Public Places Urban Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design Matthew Carmona, Tim Heath, Taner Oc, Steve Tiesdell
	59. Cities are Good for You: the Genius of the Metropolis Leo Hollis
	58. Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change Peter Calthorpe
	57. A Country of Cities: a Manifesto for an Urban America Vishaan Chakrabarti
	56. Urban Design Downtown: Poetics and Politics of Form Loukaitou-Sideris & Banerjee
	55. The Pedestrian Pocketbook: a New Suburban Design Strategy Doug Kelbaugh
	54. The Old Way of Seeing Jonathan Hale
	53. Green Metropolis David Owen
	52. City Comforts: How to Build and Urban Village David Sucher
	51. Global City Blues Daniel Solomon
	50. People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space Cooper Marcus & Francis
	49. Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs Dunham-Jones and Williamson
	48. Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities Patrick Condon
	47. The New Civic Art Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Alminana
	46. Sustainable Transportation Planning Jeffrey Tumlin
	45. Triumph of the City Edward Glaeser
	44. Who's Your City Richard Florida
	43. Perverse Cities Pamela Blais
	42. The Public Face of Architecture: Civic Culture and Public Spaces Nathan Glazer and Mark Lilla
	41. Cities of Tomorrow Peter Hall
	40. Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature Douglas Farr
	39. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things McDonough and Braungart
	38. Visualizing Density Julie Campoli and Alex MacLean
	37. Suburban Nation Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck
	36. Eco-Urbanity: Towards Well Mannered Built Environments Darko Radovic
	35. Le Pieton Dans la Ville/Walking in the City: Sharing Public Space Jean-Jacques Terrin
	34. Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being and Sustainability Dannenberg et al
	33. Good City Form Kevin Lynch
	32. The Vancouver Achievement John Punter
	31. Livable Streets Donald Appleyard
	30. The City in History Lewis Mumford (and The Culture of Cities, The Highway and the City, The Urban Prospect, etc)
	29. Town Spaces Rob Krier (or Urban Space by Rob Krier, can’t decide which one I like better)
	28. New Design Cities Commerce Design Montreal
	27. Design for Ecological Democracy Randolph Hester
	26. The American Vitruvius: An Architects Handbook of Civic Art Hegemann and Peets
	25. Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change Reid Ewing, Keith Bartholomew, Steve Winkelman, Jerry Walters, and Don Chen
	24. The Great Reset Richard Florida
	23. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design Charles Montgomery
	22. The Power Broker – Robert Moses and the Fall of New York Robert A. Caro
	21. The High Cost of Free Parking Donald Shoup
	20. Straphanger: Saving our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile Taras Grescoe (I had to put the walking, biking, and transit books in that order – those who know our Vancouver transportation mode prioritization policy will understand that order of things…)
	19. Human Transit Jarrett Walker
	18. City Cycling Pucher & Buehler
	17. Walkable City Jeff Speck
	16. Cerdà and the Barcelona of the Future: Reality versus Project Ajuntament de Barcelona
	15. Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful Charles Mulford Robinson
	14. Cities and the Wealth of Nations Jane Jacobs
	13. The City Shaped (& its partner, The City Assembled) Spiro Kostof
	12. The Creative City Charles Landry
	11. Town Planning in Practice Raymond Unwin
	10. Life Between Buildings Jan Gehl
	9. The Image of the City Kevin Lynch
	8. Townscape Gordon Cullen
	7. The Art of Building Cities Camillo Sitte
	6. A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander et al (& his whole series, including A New Theory of Urban Design; The Timeless Way of Building, etc.)
	5. City: Rediscovering The Center William H. Whyte (includes its smaller predecessor, "the Social LIfe of Small Urban Spaces")
	4. Great Streets Allan Jacobs
	3. The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs
	2. The Art of City Making Charles Landry
	1. Cities for People Jan Gehl

Before I wrap this up, in addition to the 100 professional or pseudo-professional books above, I thought I’d add a few honourable mentions… unusual books that have influenced how I see city-making, but not really books specifically about city-making.

Honourable Mentions:

• Oh, the Places You'll Go! – Dr. Seuss (That's right! Dr. Seuss understood placemaking!)
• The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
• The City and the City – China Mieville
• Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
• The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
• The Tipping Point, & Blink – both by Malcolm Gladwell

These books may not be your favourites, and if so, I’d love to hear why. Would you include other books on the list? Are there books on mine that you disagree with or dislike? Do you disagree with the order? I look forward to the discussion and debate.

Postscript

In the 4 days since posting, the discussion and debate about my choices on this list have been vigorous, interesting, and fun – the response has been remarkable! The Planetizen commenters listed below reflect only a small portion of that, adding to the many tweets and emails I’ve received.

With the benefit of hindsight and this great discussion, here are a few additional thoughts on the Top 100:

As a result of persuasive lobbying (and not from the authors), I agree that three books should probably have been moved up on the list – Duany/Plater-Zyberk/Speck’s Suburban Nation, Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere, and McHarg’s Design With Nature. I won’t say how far up I would move them, and I suspect it wouldn't be as much as their supporters might like, but their complex contribution warrants a different and more complementary number. For those of you who might suspect that I’m capitulating to pressure, you should know that many other books were also argued for – the difference in the case of these three books, is that I agreed with the arguments.

I would also add four books to the list that were definite oversights:

• Jacobs’ The Economy of Cities, which in some ways influenced me more than the included Cities and The Wealth of Nations;
• Douglas Kelbaugh’s Common Place: Toward Neighborhood & Regional Design;
• Leon Krier’s The Architecture of Communities; and
• Randall Arendt’s Rural by Design (urbanism isn’t just for cities…).

In addition, there are a few other highly lobbied-for books that I might include in future lists, but the truth is, I haven’t read them yet – books like Doug Saunders’ Arrival City. Many of the comments have resulted in a great “must-read” list for me for the new year.

I was amused that the most controversial inclusion was my tongue-in-cheek inclusion of The Fountainhead into the “honourable mentions” (right after Dr. Seuss!). Although I noted in the text that I had included works that I disagreed with, I now realize the weakness of not doing this article as an annotated Top 100 – that would have allowed a brief explanation of why each is on the list. For The Fountainhead, I explained the following in the comments below:

Roark as a character, though disturbing in some ways, is also very interesting in other ways, including as a cautionary tale, and instructive in considering the way some overly ego-driven architects think (and still are trained to think). As a rugged individualist, un-civic, he is indeed an “anti-planner,” and an “anti-urbanist.” But I recommend the book frequently as interesting reading, despite my strong disagreement with Ayn Rand's philosophies & politics.

Lastly, I expected that my choice for #1 (Gehl) and #2 (Landry) would be controversial, given the unique importance of #3 (Jacobs’ Death and Life), and indeed, I’ve received some disagreement. But I’ve also gotten agreement, and have heard from many who have told me they’re now keen to read Gehl and Landry.  In the end, I stand by my choice for my top 3.

Thank you all for the comments and discussion – I hope it continues! City-making is supported by a rich library of great literary works that we can all benefit from. I hope this has inspired your holiday reading!

Brent Toderian is an international consultant on advanced urbanism with TODERIAN UrbanWORKS, Vancouver’s former Director of City Planning, and the President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism. Follow him on Twitter @BrentToderian