Book Review

Two-way green painted bike lane in city.

Book Review: Combining Sustainability and Smart Growth

A review of The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, by architects Nico Larco and Kaarin Knudson.

October 22, 2024 - Michael Lewyn

Single-family house with two-car garage under construction

YIMBY Right And Left: A Review of Two Books

A review of two books about the American housing crisis — one tailored to liberal readers, another tailored to conservative readers.

October 15, 2024 - Michael Lewyn

Close-up of orange and white traffic cone on street with blurred worker in orange vest in background.

Book Review: Killed By A Traffic Engineer

In a new book, engineering professor Wes Marshall explains why American roads are so unsafe.

August 13, 2024 - Michael Lewyn

View of large empty parking garage

The Softer Side Of Shoupism

Journalist Harry Grabar takes Prof. Don Shoup's economic theories about parking (and over-parking) and illustrates them with compelling—and terrifying—stories about the role parking plays in America's cities.

May 22, 2023 - California Planning & Development Report

Bike Light

The Mystique of the Bicycle

A new book illuminates the history and meaning of the bicycle in human society.

June 5, 2022 - The Atlantic

Brooklyn, New York City

New Book Interrogates Landscape Architecture Through The Lens Of Black Spaces

A collection of essays provides an insightful look at how Black voices and landscapes have been suppressed and erased in American public space and discourse.

November 4, 2021 - The Architect's Newspaper

Green Belt

New Book, 'Land,' Searches for Solid Ground

Simon Winchester's new book, Land, brings global scope to the concepts of land use.

January 19, 2021 - Josh Stephens

Autonomous Vehicle

Book Review: 'Ghost Road' and Visions for Autonomous Transporation

Anthony M. Townsend's new book goes beyond autonomous automobiles to examine autonomous transportation in a larger context.

August 26, 2020 - Inside Higher Ed

Millennium Atoll

Sea Level Rise Will Not Be Uniform

As the climate warms, the world's glaciers and ice sheets are melting, but sea level increase will be greater in some places due to the earth's rotation and gravity, according to a newly released study by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

November 27, 2017 - NPR

Greenwich Village

The Lessons Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander Still Have to Teach

Robert Steuteville reviews Cities Alive, by Michael Mehaffy, describing the newly released book as "an important analysis for urbanism."

November 21, 2017 - Public Square: A CNU Journal

High Line with Denari

'The New Urban Crisis' and the High Line

A PBS NewsHour two-fer: an interview of urbanologist Richard Florida conducted in a walking tour of New York's famed High Line in the gentrifying West Chelsea neighborhood, a fitting backdrop for his new book, "The New Urban Crisis."

June 5, 2017 - PBS NewsHour

Kid on Bus

Review: Seeing the City

Hoping to shake city folks out of our everyday stupor, Charles Wolfe has written a book on observing the city.

March 2, 2017 - CityLab

Tuscany

'The Well-Tempered City': An Epic Book, and Why

In a review of Jonathan F.P. Rose's new book, 'The Well-Tempered City,' Chuck Wolfe enthusiastically endorses Rose's refreshing world view.

September 28, 2016 - The Huffington Post

Delivery Drone

Looking for Solutions in a World of Innovations

Current trends in the design community require a pointed question: "When everything is characterized as 'world-changing,' is anything?"

July 12, 2016 - The New York Times

Bethlehem

Book Review: From Steel to Slots

Chloe E. Taft explores the transition of Bethlehem, Pa., from Rust Belt company town to gambling mecca.

April 7, 2016 - Josh Stephens

'The Road Taken' Uncovers the Civil Engineer's Hand in Building America's Roads

Nathan Masters reviews the new book by historian Henry Petroski, "The Road Taken," a historical look at America's roads and the civil engineers who built them.

February 29, 2016 - Los Angeles Times

Hollywood Sign

Book Review: 'City by City'

A Planetizen review of "City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis," edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb, finds too much to fault in the book's essay about Los Angeles.

June 16, 2015 - Josh Stephens

Parking Sign

Book Review: Before 'Park' Became a Verb

With so much to learn just by reading a Wall Street Journal book review of "Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road" by James Longhurst, history professor at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, imagine what's to learn by reading the book.

April 13, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

Exurban Development

Book Review: Zoned in the USA

"Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation," by Sonja Hirt, describes the exceptional characteristics, compared to European land use regulations, that make U.S. zoning laws so conducive to sprawl.

March 4, 2015 - Josh Stephens

New York City Construction

Affordable Housing: the Hype and the Hope

Sam Hall Kaplan elucidates the inadequacies of affordable housing policy before introducing a new perspective to the conversation—a new book by Roger Katan with Ronald Shiffman called "Building Together."

February 17, 2015 - Sam Hall Kaplan

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.