Planetizen is conducting an online poll. They want to know who you believe to be the top urban thinkers. Jane Jacobs? Lewis Mumford? Le Corbu? Olmstead? Burnham?
What about someone we would not normally consider to be an “urban thinker?” Planetizen left the definition vague on purpose:
We invite you to be creative and suggest urban planners, architects, artists, or everyday people. Author Upton Sinclair, for instance, would be a legitimate choice for his work as a muckraker and social activist in the city of Chicago. Reaching back to historical figures like Vitruvius or figures outside of the Western canon is also highly encouraged. Have fun, and as another Chicagoan once said, vote early and vote often.
Contribute your vote by clicking here. And feel free to discuss here as well…
7 Comments
Spiro Kostof, Gordon Cullen, Michael Sorkin & Charles Landry are good for starters. Lewis Mumford & Jane Jacobs may be the best of last century. Hopefully Baltimore will develop some new talent as an emerging creative class city with good fundamentals.
I would recommend Kazys Varnelis for his writing on infrastructure, networks, and complexity, Keller Easterling for her work on globalization, ironic humor, and non-oppositional activism, and also Bruce Sterling for his research on technology, pop culture, and general international weirdness.
Let’s not forget Leon Krier…
Krier’s Poundbury doesn’t seem to be doing so well, according to a recent article in the Guardian: link
Poor Leon,
He freed us from the tyranny of modernism only to be confronted by cracks in damp walls, cold drafts, dark alleys & keeping up with the Jones’s next door. Perhaps he should have consulted a feng shui expert if social harmony and good fortune are goals to be achieved. I have not been to Poundbury but have explore it through google earth and thought about its application to an actual project & tried to sell it — the client wasn’t interested…
I like the use of walls at the lot line, irregular geometries, hidden alleys & pedestarian ways, distributed parking in small lots hidden from public view, intimate streetscape and scale of the place. It has a good density and it is laid out like a historic district.
The social problems of small towns like juveniles vandalizing parks, pranks, human jealousies and the solving of the seven deadly sins cannot be solved by architecture, urban design or planning. Look at the animosities in well scaled Annapolis as an example of what happens when people (business, resident & transient) live in close mixed use proximity to each other — Maybe it is better to retreat into the woods alone with your car pondering carbon sequestration.
koolhaas has got to be in the group. i feel like it’s become a cliche to put him in any list. and his research and theoretical projects are totally overshadowed by his buildings these days. but he deserves much credit for properly framing the questions/issues/problems that continue to define this era’s urbanism and architecture. I was just rereading his 1994 essay “The Generic City” from S M L XL
You’re right, Craig, an article like this that’s essentially full of anecdotes isn’t really fair. To be informative, one would have to compare actual rates of petty crime and vandalism between similar communities, and ignore the resident’s self reported perception. I also like alleys, and think people tend to be more afraid of them then they deserve.
That said, I don’t think copying the principles of traditional town planning wholesale without responding to contemporary needs (like parking) is going to get anyone on a list of innovative urban thinkers. That’s just the equivalent, at a larger scale, of a styrofoam cornice.