Essential Urban Planning Books

[Marquez Feliciano]

Tocelebrate the 100th anniversary of the American planning movement, the American Planning Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries created a list of the books essential to planning from every decade starting in 1909, the date of the first national planning conference.

Carrying Out the City Plan. Flavel Shurtleff, Frederick L. Olmsted 1914. Instigated by Olmsted, this was the first study of state planning law. Undertaken by landscape architect Flavel Shurtleff, the work became an indispensable tool for planners, planning commissioners, and attorneys as they developed the legal foundations and the practice of planning. Google Books

Cities in Evolution: An Introduction to the Town Planning Movement and to the Study of Civics. Patrick Geddes 1915. Linking social reform and the urban environment, Geddes looked at cities comprehensively. All planning should preserve the unique historic character of the city and involve citizens in the planning of its development, he reasoned, sounding two themes that would reemerge in the 1950s and 1960s. Google Books

The Planning of the Modern City: A Review of the Principles Governing City Planning. Nelson P. Lewis 1916. Focused on the physical city, Lewis viewed the problems of city planning as engineering problems. From transportation systems to parks and recreation, this book took a systems approach and inspired engineers to consider planning their concern and planners to consider physical problems. Google Books

The City. Robert E. Park, Ernest W. Burgess, Roderick D. McKenzie, Louis Wirth 1925. Burgess introduced the concept of human ecology by investigating the spatial patterns of urban development. His concentric zone theory connected the distance one commutes from the central business district to a socioeconomic zone of the city; hence residents are sorted by economic and social class into zones. Google Books

New Towns for Old: Achievements in Civic Improvement in Some American Small Towns and Neighborhoods. John Nolen 1927. A pioneer in the profession of city and regional planning, Nolen was a landscape architect responsible for the design of many innovative town plans, such as Venice, California. His book comprehensively examined the economic, social, and physical aspects of planning and argued for the place of natural beauty in urban design. Like his contemporaries, he was a city reformer. The book highlights several of his planned communities, including Mariemont, Ohio. Google Books

The New Exploration: A Philosophy of Regional Planning. Benton MacKaye 1928. Co-founder of The Wilderness Society, Benton MacKaye advocated in this work for land preservation for recreation and conservation. MacKaye linked planning to conservation. Google Books

Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture. Robert Staughton Lynd, Helen Merrell Lynd 1929. A monumental and very popular anthropological study of Muncie, Indiana, the book helped define the character of the American community. The authors examined work, class divisions, nuclear family, and play among other key organizing principles of American life. Google Books

Neighborhood Unit A Scheme of Arrangement for the Family-Life Community. Clarence Perry 1929. Perry developed the concept of the neighborhood unit and believed cities should be aggregates of smaller units that serve as a focus of community. He promoted public neighborhood space and pedestrian scale. Google Books

The Disappearing City. Frank Lloyd Wright 1932. In this publication Wright introduced Broadacre City, his visionary community form divorced from the city and suburban in concept. His was one of many conceptual new towns that were primarily architectural in character. Google Books

Modern Housing. Catherine Bauer 1934. Both an assessment and a political demand for a housing movement to support low rent housing, this book helped rally interest and concern in housing needs in America . It advocated for the role of government in assuring housing for all. Google Books

Regional Factors in National Planning and Development. National Resources Committee 1935. A major study of regions in America , this work detailed how federal, state, and local government could undertake coordinated planning. The report addressed political frameworks, interstate cooperation, economic issues, regulations, waters rights, and examined the Tennessee Valley Authority as a model for regional planning. Google Books

Outline of Town and City Planning. Thomas D. Adams 1935. Did the profession of planning arise in response to traffic congestion? Certainly, the automobile put tremendous pressure on the existing form of cities. This core idea and many more were consolidated into this book which served as one of the first textbooks on planning in America . The books was based on 11 years of lectures Adams gave at MIT. Google Books

The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighborhoods in American Cities. Homer Hoyt, U.S. Federal Housing Administration 1939. From his experience in real estate, Hoyt examined how the structure of residential neighborhoods developed. He also explored how the real estate market worked to shape neighborhoods. His is known for the sector theory in urban development. Google Books

The Planning Function in Urban Government. Robert Walker 1941. A controversial but influential book which argued that planning needed to move away from association with independent commissions and gain a place closer to the local legislative body, the chief executive, and administrative agencies. In short, Walker argued for fully integrated planning agencies within local government. Google Books

The Road to Serfdom. Frederick A. von Hayek 1944. Nobel Prize winner Hayek argued that central economic planning led to serfdom. His influential theories reinforced libertarian views that hands-off approaches by government were needed to avoid tyranny. His work re-emerged as an influence on governmental policy makers in the 1980s. Google Books

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Aldo Leopold 1949. Aldo Leopold was a co-founder of The Wilderness Society and the originator of the concept of wildlife management. In this popular book he put forward the ethical premise that views land not as a commodity to be possessed but an obligation to be preserved. He helped develop the scientific concept of ecology. Google Books

Toward New Towns for America. Clarence S. Stein 1951. Stein was a co-founder of the Regional Planning Association of America, a co-designer of the iconic planned town of Radburn, and an advocate for the federal new town planning program. His book highlights his pedestrainfriendly, greenbelt-influenced designs for neighborhoods and towns. Google Books

Urban Traffic A Function of Land Use. Robert B. Mitchell, Chester Rapkin 1954. This book pioneered the concept that urban traffic patterns resulted from land uses and their resulting activities. Although the link had been made between traffic and planning quite early, Mitchell and Rapkin showed how it could be measured and studied. Their concept became accepted thinking throughout the profession. Google Books

The Heart of Our Cities: The Urban Crisis, Diagnosis and Cure. Victor Gruen 1955. The father of the mid-20th century shopping mall, architect and planner Gruen wrote this treatise on how to approach the redevelopment of cities. He viewed malls as the center pieces of new urban towns. Google Books

The Organization Man. William H. Whyte 1956. The book examines the impact of large scale organization on society, including planned suburban communities and the belief in the endless perfection of life and society. Whyte revealed the cost to the individual in terms of initiative and creativity. Google Books

Standard Industrial Classification. Bureau of the Budget 1957. The standard classification project began in 1937 and in the 1950s a broader project was undertaken to classify both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing in the United States. This massive effort integrated diverse statistical data that allowed planners, researchers, and communities to access wide ranging data in standardized classifications such as types of employment.

Design with Nature. Ian McHarg 1969. This pioneering, inspirational work on environmental planning was notable for its use of map overlays to identify land development constraints. An influential landscape architect who spoke to planners, McHarg showed how to achieve the ideal fit between built environments and natural surroundings. Google Books

American City Planning Since 1890: A History Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Institute of Planners. Mel Scott 1969. Not only was this book invaluable in developing this essential books list, it is the standard text on American city planning history up to 1969. Scott helped illuminate the intellectual as well as the practical develops in the field drawing clear paths from the Progressive and sanitary movements to the planning in the postwar eras. Google Books

The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life. Richard Sennett 1970. Influential urban sociologist Sennett examines how excessive order produced dull urban life, but was socially destructive and led to the cultivation of violent, narrow, repressed societies. His appreciation of the complexity and essential unregulated nature of good urban life challenged planners to do more than impose solutions. Google Books

Learning from Las Vegas. Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, Steven Izenour 1971. A landmark work filled with wit and insight into how people actually use and enjoy landscapes of pleasure. The book challenged architects and planners to consider the overlooked vernacular and understand how it created an order and form of its own, and responded creatively to the people who inhabited commercial landscape. It was the first book to examine the phenomenon of the strip in the American city. Google Books

Site Planning. Kevin Lynch, Gary Hack 1971. This thorough work on all the technical aspects of site planning is infused with a deep understanding on how humans inhabit their environment, the need to avoid ugliness, and the importance of understanding the consequences of design. The book remains a standard in the field of planning. Google Books

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