It’s been a while since I read it, but I seem to recall it dramatically leveling up my understanding of what cities were for, and therefor how to think about planning 5rm.
@peterme@notjustbikes@fuckcars kevin lynch’s “the image of the city” / anything about barcelona between franco’s death and the olympics / I read peter rowe’s “building barcelona a second renaixença” after my first visit to the city / a gift certificate and a trip to william stout books in jackson square / license to believe that the bay area very likely has the worst urban planning in north america
@peterme@notjustbikes@fuckcars Mumford’s City In History, Mike Davis’s City of Quartz (with Chinatown showing…?) - also Geoffrey West’s Scale, and Witold Rybczynski’s City Life.
Add: Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery; Walkable City by Jeff Speck; and Cities: The First 6,000 Years by Monica L. Smith.
@peterme@notjustbikes@fuckcars Thinking of books that can set a foundation. Jane Jacobs is good and would likely be good for a 15 year old, but I always think of her work as an incredibly good counter weight, but not a starting place.
Understanding scale, how cities work, the why of cities, and the impact of cities on their people I think of as good foundations.