City Models

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines as an Urban Planning Tool

Computer simulations continue to play a novel and important role in urban planning, especially in finding new ways to engage the public and add some fun to the process of planning for the future of cities.

August 10, 2020 - parCitypatory

Did Augustus Really Transform Rome into a 'City of Marble'?

Caeser Augustus famously boasted "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble." An architectural historian and urban designer at UCLA now has the model to prove the veracity of the claim.

March 7, 2015 - UCLA Newsroom

22 Model Cities

WebUrbanist collects pictures of city miniatures built by planning departments, for tourist attractions, or by obsessives who go into painstaking detail to recreate Chicago, Moscow, or Tokyo.

March 5, 2010 - WebUrbanist

Utopias in Miniature

As Germany's elections near, the makers of 'Miniature Wonderland' invite political parties to use their scale models to show the public what their utopia would look like.

August 27, 2009 - Speigel International

Building Communities With Legos and Plastic Bottles

GOOD Magazine follows planner James Rojas as he engages a community in the act of planning in his own particular fashion, using everyday objects and building blocks.

August 17, 2009 - GOOD Magazine

How to Build Chicago

This video from WTTW looks at a huge new model of the city of Chicago, and shows how it was built.

August 6, 2009 - WTTW

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.