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Big Plans: The Allure and Folly of Urban Design springs from the idea that human aspirations for the city tend to overstate the role of rationality in public life. Inspired by the architectural and urban criticism of such writers as Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, and John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Kolson adopts a user's perspective on issues of urban design, an approach that highlights both the futility of social engineering and the resilience of the human spirit.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• List of Illustrations(p. xi)
• Acknowledgments(p. xv)
• Introduction(p. 1)
• 1 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Trajan's Forum(p. 15)
• 2 The "Hidden Cities" of Ancient North America(p. 29)
• 3 Cleveland as City Beautiful(p. 49)
• 4 Utopian Visions on the Crabgrass Frontier(p. 65)
• 5 Urban Renewal: "The Bugs Are All Out"(p. 75)
• 6 The Strange Career of Advocacy Planning(p. 89)
• 7 Two Cheers for Sprawl(p. 97)
• 8 When Government Dares to Dream(p. 125)
• 9 The British Library: From Great Planning Disaster to Almost All Right(p. 147)
• 10 With Its "Doors Set Wide to the City"(p. 165)
• 11 SimCity and Our Town(p. 177)
• Notes(p. 189)
• Select Bibliography(p. 217)
• Illustration Credits(p. 225)
• Index(p. 227)

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CHOICE Review

Those interested in cities should read this book, which seeks to evaluate the urban setting in the US by illustrating and discussing planning over several millennia in a variety of world geographic settings. Examples of various scales are included, from the large to the very small. Kolson (National Endowment for the Humanities) had several goals in mind when writing this book. He primarily deals with the notions that various people had as they created the images that would eventually see reality as the cities were formed and built. Kolson also considers the average person's expressions over the landscape as many extemporized pragmatic solutions to real problems. In spirit, the book is analogous to the earlier works of Lewis Mumford's well-known The City in History (1961) and Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961); however, Kolson takes a clearly defined interdisciplinary approach, addressing geographers, historians, political scientists, urban planners, and architects. Divided into 11 chapters, the book is complemented by a number of photographs and drawings. Though selected, the bibliography is strong and helpful for further reading. Upper-division undergraduates and above. L. Yacher Southern Connecticut State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Kenneth Kolson is deputy director of the Division of Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities.