The Death and Life of Great American Cities
| The Death and Life of Great American Cities | |
|---|---|
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| Author(s) | Jane Jacobs |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Random House, New York |
| Publication date | 1961 |
| OCLC Number | 500754 |
| Followed by | The Economy of Cities |
The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 20th century urban planning policy, which it says was responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States.[1] Going against the common wisdom of the age, deemed a combination of the Radiant City, Garden city, and City Beautiful movements, it proposes new ideas that it says would ensure organic vibrancy in urban America.
Contents |
Contents [edit]
Reserving her most vitriolic criticism for the "rationalist" planners (specifically Robert Moses) of the 1950s and 1960s, Jacobs argued that modernist urban planning rejects the city, because it rejects human beings living in a community characterized by layered complexity and seeming chaos. The modernist planners used deductive reasoning to find principles by which to plan cities. Among these policies she considered urban renewal the most violent, and separation of uses (i.e., residential, industrial, commercial) the most prevalent. These policies, she claimed, destroy communities and innovative economies by creating isolated, unnatural urban spaces.
In their place Jacobs advocated "four generators of diversity": "The necessity for these four conditions is the most important point this book has to make. In combination, these conditions create effective economic pools of use." (p. 151) The conditions are:
- Mixed uses, activating streets at different times of the day
- Short blocks, allowing high pedestrian permeability
- Buildings of various ages and states of repair
- Density
Her aesthetic can be considered opposite to that of the modernists, upholding redundancy and vibrancy against order and efficiency. She frequently cites New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of a vibrant urban community. The Village, like many similar communities, may well have been preserved, at least in part, by her writing and activism. The book also played a major role in slowing the urban redevelopment of Toronto in Canada, where Jacobs was involved in the campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway.[2]
Legacy [edit]
The book continues to be Jacobs' most influential, and is still widely read by both planning professionals and the general public.[not specific enough to verify] It has been translated into six languages and has sold over a quarter-million copies.[3] Urban theorist Lewis Mumford, while finding fault with her methodology, encouraged Jacobs' early writings in the New York Review of Books.[4] Robert Caro has cited Jacobs' book as the strongest influence on The Power Broker, his biography of Robert Moses.[citation needed]
Jacobs' writings were an important influence on New Urbanism, an architecture and planning movement which emerged in the 1980s.
References [edit]
- ^ "Jane Jacobs' Radical Legacy". Peter Dreier. Summer 2006. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
- ^ Cervero, Robert (1998). The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry, p. 87. Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-591-6.
- ^ Ward, Stephen: Jane Jacobs: Critic of the modernist approach to urban planning who believed that cities were places for people in The Independent, 3 June 2006
- ^ "Jane Jacobs Interviewed by Jim Kunstler for Metropolis Magazine, March 2001". Retrieved 2006-04-23.
Bibliography [edit]
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library (hardcover) ed.). New York: Random House. February 1993 [1961]. ISBN 0-679-60047-7. This edition includes a new foreword written by the author.
