Best Books About Urban Design

Since the mid nineteen-eighties, a new breed of designers, the New Urbanists, have been proposing ways to minimize sprawl and create "people-friendly" communities. Much has been written about New Urbanism, pro and con. Here are the classic texts about New Urbanism and Urban Design, along with a few of our favorites.

1. The Death and Life of Great American Cities

When Jane Jacobs wrote this book, she changed the way we think about urban planning. Nearly 40 years later, the text is a classic. A must read for architects, urban planners, and anyone concerned with city revitalization.

2. The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community

Tips and techniques for architects and planning professionals, with photographs, site plans, and project renderings. Only 180 pages, this little book is not just for the pros -- It is for anyone concerned about suburban sprawl. By Peter Katz and Vincent Scully.

3. Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States

By Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder. Both authors are professors of urban and regional planning, but this study of America's enclosed communities is not just for academics. Only 208 pages long, the book paints a disturbing picture of a nation where the affluent barricade themselves behind the locked gates of exclusive neighborhoods.

4. Suburban Nation

The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck. Armed with dozens of photos and caustic wit, the authors bombard us with darkly comical facts about the decline of our cities and the spread of sprawl.

Read Review

5. Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown

This recipe for urban revitalization argues against large, grandiose projects. Roberta Brandes Gratz and Norman Mintz offer tales of many urban success stories and suggests that the solution for struggling cities is to encourage modest, organic growth, small businesses, and public spaces.

6. Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture

Here's the compelling tale of a city that evolved - almost miraculously - in a desert wasteland. Six architectural eras are analyzed, with lavish color photos. In its celebration of architectural anarchy, this slim book provides an interesting counterpoint to New Urbanist thought. By Alan Hess.

Read Review

7. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape

Journalist and fiction writer James Howard Kunstler became the guru for New Urbanism when he wrote this bestselling study of encroaching ugliness in America. Kunstler argues that much of the American landscape has become ugly, empty, and not worth caring about. The solution? Pattern American cities and towns after villages from days gone by.

8. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century

Author James Howard Kunstler continues the attack on modernist architecture and urban sprawl, and proposes tax and zoning reforms