“It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give.” The opening sentence is, “This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.” Here are a couple of juicy quotes from the introduction, which I share with you because they are equally relevant to landscaping, as I think you will see. I just finished a wonderful biography of Jacobs and have been itching to finally get to “Death and Life” as its fans call it. Many of you may know that this is probably the most revered book on urban planning ever written, and is considered in fact one of the best books of any kind of the last hundred years. I’ve just this morning started reading, after putting it off for over forty years, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961). to save the West Village holds up documentary evidence at press conference at Lions Head Restaurant at Hudson & Charles Sts. 'Perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning.By Owen Dell | ApMrs. It is only when we appreciate such fundamental realities that we can hope to create cities that are safe, interesting and economically viable, as well as places that people want to live in. The real vitality of cities, argues Jacobs, lies in their diversity, architectural variety, teeming street life and human scale. Yet they seldom stop to look at what actually works on the ground. Inspired by the ideals of the Garden City or Le Corbusier's Radiant City, they have dreamt up ambitious projects based on self-contained neighbourhoods, super-blocks, rigid 'scientific' plans and endless acres of grass. Throughout the post-war period, planners temperamentally unsympathetic to cities have been let loose on our urban environment. The result is one of the most stimulating books on cities ever written. In this classic text, Jane Jacobs set out to produce an attack on current city planning and rebuilding and to introduce new principles by which these should be governed. Print The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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