city planning

  • Highways and Byways

    Roads are infrastructure so ubiquitous they almost resist noticing – until a pothole takes out your axle, or a landslide prevents you from getting to your vacation cabin. But their very existence – from placement, to number of lanes, and more – is also deeply political with profound local impacts. Two recent books look at… Continue reading

  • Evolution of a Sustainable City

    This September, I set up a display on the Central Library’s 7th floor called “Sustainable Cities” to complement a traveling exhibition we were showing at the time elsewhere in the building. The display featured books and documentaries about how to design and build an urban environment that would offer more economic and energy security, better… Continue reading

  • Futurama Redux: Urban Mobility After Cars, a Traveling International Exhibition

    One of the highlights of the 1939 World’s Fair was a massive exhibit called “Futurama,” created by General Motors. It promised that within twenty years the working man would live in a glorious future filled with friendly suburbs, gleaming skyscrapers, and extensive highways—all of this made possible by the comfort and convenience of the personal… Continue reading

  • Toronto, Mon Amour

    I grew up in Seattle, and am used to hearing out-of-towners who visit the downtown library raving about our breathtaking city (and libraries). Well now I know how they feel. I just returned from my third visit to Toronto, where I was speaking at a library conference, and have been boring everyone silly with effusions… Continue reading

  • Buildings and Cities

    The Seattle Public Library has a large and varied collection of books about architecture and city planning. Here are a few that I find interesting and useful. I hope you enjoy them too. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs’ classic ground-breaking attack on the planning of American cities,… Continue reading