Books
Imagining a Self-Contained, Vertical City
A new book makes the case for vertical cities, following a 32-point manifesto about the needs of future cities.
How Does Social Status Drive Transit Opposition?
A new book explains how suburban dwellers have built "zoning rules, housing covenants and other mechanisms" to protect "their privileged place in the residential pecking order."
A Korean City for Books and Architecture
Shannon Mattern visits a "a publishers’ enclave" that is seeking to reinvent Korean publishing, architecture and urban planning in the wetlands near the Demilitarized Zone.
Will the Near Future be a Harsh Climate for Suburbs?
In this excerpt from her new book, "Before the Lights Go Out" author Maggie Koerth-Baker warns of the converging crises of peak oil and climate change on suburban areas.
Untangling Our Emotions From Transit Planning
Eric Jaffe interviews Jarrett Walker, the author of a new, nonpartisan treatise on thinking rationally about transit.
Reviewing Recent Books on Cities
In reviewing a handful of new books looking at cities and how they work, this piece from The New Yorker glosses over the current thinking behind the urban conversation and wonders if city celebration has gone too far.
Is Ed Glaeser an Antiplanner?
In his new book "Triumph of The City," Glaeser gives high regard to high-density urbanism and the city but criticizes planners and historic preservationists for over-regulation in land use planning.
An Understandable Zoning Guide
New York City has released a new handbook of its zoning regulations in an illustrated, easily-comprehensible guide.
Revisiting Early L.A. Reviews
Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne begins a year-long series reading and reviewing 25 books all about L.A.
Urban Favorites
The Polis Blog presents a huge list of "urban favorites" -- songs, movies, initiatives and places that explain or highlight the best of the world's urban areas.
The Jacobs Legacy
Jarrett Murphy reviews The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs" by Roberta Brandes Gratz, and concludes that it is a nuanced interpretation of the classic showdown.
A Giant of a Book on Urban Design
Ben Brown reviews Dhiru Thadani's new book, The Language of Towns and Cities. Weighing in at 800 pages, this encyclopedic urban design dictionary defines planning terms with extensive graphics.
Top 10 Architecture Books of 2010
Norman Weinstein of The Architectural Record selects his favorite architecture books of the year, which range from a coming-of-age memoir to a treatise on Turkish art and architecture.
Top 10 Books - 2011
Planetizen is pleased to release its ninth annual list of the ten best books in urban planning, design and development published in 2010. This year's selection includes some big names, some big ideas -- and a book called "Toilet."
Urban Planning Gift Ideas For Children (Your Budding Planner)
I've gathered some of the best here, properly field tested by my boys, to help you with your holiday shopping list.
The Beauty of Public Spaces
A new book by Robert Gatje gives public squares and piazzas the coffee-table treatment, meticulously detailing what makes these historic spaces work.
Can We Get Utopia Right?
Salon interviews author J.C. Hallman about his new book "In Utopia," which explores modern-day utopian projects and how they differ from those of the past.
New Book Says Cars Are The Future
A review of the new book, "Two Billion Cars: Driving Towards Sustainability," which argues that cleaner cars are the future of transportation and barely mentions bicycling, walking or transit.
City of 250,000 Has No Bookstore
Laredo, Texas is losing its only bookstore, a B. Dalton (the chain is going out of business).
Urban and Regional Mysteries: Not so Guilty Pleasures
With vacations upon us many students have been asking me what they should read over the winter break. Certainly it is possible to catch up with planning classics and thought-provoking books and several earlier blogs have highlighted these options. However,for those wanting to escape and learn something as well, a number of mystery authors write books that both investigate crimes and evoke a sense of place. The following list highlights just some of this range—there are hundreds more of course (and if you scroll for the bottom you will find links to other lists).
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
