Reading List
The following are books that I highly recommend for the reasons noted. They’re grouped by subject, and within that, alphabetically by title. Where possible, I’ve included a link to Amazon or some other site where the book can be purchased.
Food
Agriculture
Agricultural Urbanism: Handbook for Building Sustainable Food Systems in 21st Century Cities
Janine de la Salle & Mark Holland, editors, Green Frigate Books, 2010.
This book sprang out of the work done at DPZ’s Southlands charrette near Vancouver, where several longstanding barriers to agricultural urbanism were shattered.
Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture
Darrin Nordahl, Island Press, 2009.
Excellent new book on agricultural urbanism.
Cuisine
In Defense of Food
Michael Pollan, Penguin, 2009.
Omnivore’s Dilemma
Michael Pollan, Penguin, 2007.
Placemaking
Original Green
Green Living: Architecture and Planning
Dr. Barbara Kenda & Steven Parissien, editors, Rizzoli, 2010.
A collection of essays on sustainability; most take a far broader view than you ordinarily hear. Full disclosure: I wrote one of the essays.
the Original Green
Stephen A. Mouzon, Guild Foundation Press, 2010.
New Urbanism Theory
Architecture of Community, The
Léon Krier, Island Press, 2009.
Watershed work by arguably the most important architecture & urbanism thinker of our time.
Death and Life of Great American Cities, The
Jane Jacobs, Vintage, 1992.
Classic definitive description of the sociology of American cities.
Geography of Nowhere, The
James Howard Kunstler, Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Both hilarious and incisive, Kunstler skewers the world of sprawl we’ve built recently.
New Urbanism, The, Toward an Architecture of Community
Peter Katz, McGraw-Hill, 1994.
This is the early catalog of the emerging New Urbanism, and covers the pioneering developments. Still a best-seller after more than a decade.
Pattern Language, A
Christopher Alexander, Oxford University Press, 1977.
This book is considered by many to be “the bible of New Urbanism.”
Retrofitting Suburbia
Ellen Dunham-Jones & June Williamson, Wiley, 2008.
This was the first authoritative New Urbanist book on the principles of suburban repair.
Sprawl Repair Manual
Galina Tachieva, Island Press, 2010.
Essential book containing the latest sprawl repair techniques; a highly useful handbook.
Suburban Nation
Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck, North Point Press, 2001.
Must-read story of how American suburbia was built, and why that’s a problem. A classic.
Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature
Douglas Farr, Wiley, 2007.
Timeless Way of Building, The
Christopher Alexander, Oxford University Press, 1979.
This is the absolutely essential precursor to A Pattern Language.
New Urbanism Practice
American Vitruvius: An Architects’ Handbook of Civic Art
Werner Hegemann, Elbert Peets, Princeton Architectural Press, 1988.
Recent reprint of the 1922 classic which has been rediscovered by an entire generation of town planners. A valuable catalog of timeless techniques.
Boulevard Book, The
Allan Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, Yodan Rofe, MIT Press, 2002
Clearly the best resource available on multi-way boulevards that were once the staple of great urban places (and can be again).
Buildings of Main Street, The
Richard Longstreth, American Association for State & Local History Book Series, 2000
This is the definitive book on Main Street building types. Town centers should not be designed or re-designed without it.
Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles
Stephanos Polyzoides, Roger Sherwood, James Tice, Julius Shulman, Princeton Architectural Press, 1992.
This is a great analysis of a building type that is flexible enough to become a staple of higher-density urban fabric in many places.
New Civic Art, The
Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Alminana, Rizzoli, 2003.
Enormous new catalog of the elements of town planning. This book pays homage to the original Civic Art of a century ago, but is entirely new material.
Place Making: Developing Town Centers, Main Streets, and Urban Villages
Charles Bohl, Urban Land Institute, 2002.
Excellent summary of many of the new options in mixed-use places.
Sprawl Repair Manual
Galina Tachieva, Island Press, 2010.
Town Planning in Practice
Raymond Unwin, Princeton Architectural Press, 1994.
Nearly a century after its initial publication, this book remains one of the best manuals available for the techniques of making great places.
New Urbanism Reference
Anatomy of the Village, The
Thomas Sharp, Penguin, 1946.
Long out of print but still occasionally available, this little book is pound-for-pound the best reference ever printed on the English village structure.
Charter of the New Urbanism
Congress for the New Urbanism, McGraw-Hill, 2000.
A 194-page expansion on the original 27-point Charter of the New Urbanism, written by the founders. Out of print, but worth it if you can get it.
New Urbanism: Best Practices Guide
Robert Steuteville, Philip Langdon, New Urban News Publications, 2009.
Quite possibly the most complete reference to the New Urbanism written to date.
Plazas of Southern Europe
Process Architecture #16, 1980.
This book, if you can find it, is a tremendously valuable resource, containing scale drawings and photos of dozens of well-known plazas. Most are in Italy, but a few other notable ones in the region are included.
Smart Growth Manual, The
Andrés Duany, Jeff Speck, Mike Lydon, McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Best new book on New Urbanism; clear, concise guide to powerful patterns.
Urban Design Handbook
Urban Design Associates, Norton, 2003.
A rare and intriguing comprehensive view inside the working details of one of the most highly-respected planning firms operating today.
Architecture Theory
Architecture: Choice or Fate
Leon Krier, Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 1998.
This theoretical work by one of the most important thinkers of our day encompasses both the urban scale and the architectural scale. Intriguing read.
New Palladians
Alireza Sagharchi & Lucien Steil, ArtMedia, 2010.
Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture, A
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, A. G. Carrick Ltd., 1989.
A book written fairly early in HRH The Prince of Wales’ career as a healer of places; it includes some of the foundation ideas upon which his current principles of sustainable places are built.
Architecture Reference
A Living Tradition [Architecture of The Bahamas] 2nd Edition
Stephen A. Mouzon, Guild Foundation Press, 2018.
This book rebuilds the architectural pattern book by including principles, not just particulars. “We do this because...”
American Builder's Companion, The
Asher Benjamin, Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.
This was one of the most important pattern books of early 19th century American architecture.
Architectural Treasures of Early America 16V, The
Lisa C. Mullins, National Historical Society, 1988.
This essential series of volumes contains most of the White Pine series of monographs from the 1920's and is the largest single collection of reference material I have ever seen on 18th and 19th century eastern and southern American architecture.
Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, The
Arthur Drexler, MIT Press, 1977.
This is one of the essential history books on the classicism of the 19th century.
Architecture of the Old South
Mills Lane, Beehive Press, 1993.
This is the summary volume of Lane's work. He has two books broken down by style and a series broken down by state. If you can afford it, buy the state series or the style series. If not, buy this one. Better yet, buy them all. They're that good.
Classical Architecture
Robert Adam, Harry N. Abrams, 1990.
This is the other absolutely essential recent work on classical architecture (Chitham's being the first).
Classical Orders of Architecture, The
Robert Chitham, Rizzoli, 1995.
This absolutely essential book describes both the orders and the origins of classical architecture in as great of detail as any contemporary work.
Country Builders Assistant, The
Asher Benjamin, Applewood Books, 1992.
This was another of Benjamin's books that shaped the early American republic.
Elements of Classical Architecture, The
Henry H. Reed, W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2001.
Elements of Style, The
Stephen Calloway, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
This book summarizes the salient characteristics of elements such as doors, windows, stairs, etc. for a range of styles beginning generally in the 18th century. This very detailed work should be considered essential for anyone detailing a building in an existing style.
Field Guide to American Architecture, A
Carole Rifkind, Bonanza Books, 1980.
Concise, excellent style guide.
Green Restorations: Sustainable Building and Historic Homes
Aaron Lubeck, New Society Publishers, 2010.
Excellent book on a subject that sorely needs more attention.
Great Georgian Houses of America
Ralph Reinhold, Dover Publications, Inc., 1970.
This 2-volume set contains a wealth of wonderfully-composed detailed drawings from the depression era of Georgian era buildings.
History of Architecture, A
Sir Banister Fletcher, Scribners, 1975.
This is the greatest single history of architecture ever written, with numerous reprints and updates through the years.
Parallel of the Classical Orders of Architecture
Johann Matthaus von Mauch, Acanthus Press, 1998.
This volume illustrates the range of the five orders in antiquity, dispelling the Renaissance myth that classicism was built on fixed canons.
Rendering in Pen and Ink
Arthur Guptill, Watson Guptill, 1997.
OK, so this reprint of the 1937 classic isn’t strictly about architecture, but it should be considered essential by anyone who is drawing architecture. We don’t go on a charrette without it.
Shingle Style and the Stick Style, The
Vincent Scully, Jr., Yale University Press, 1971.
This continues to be the definitive history of a uniquely American style that developed from vernacular roots in the 19th century.
Traditional Construction Patterns
Stephen A. Mouzon, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
My last McGraw-Hill book lays out the do’s and don’ts of traditional construction, focusing on 108 patterns that are most often screwed up.
Vignola: Five Orders of Architecture, The
Pierre Esquie, William Helburn, 1890.
Extremely important book if you can find it. There have been reprints in recent years.
Trends
Some of these books that might seem like urbanism outliers are included because they deal with ways ideas spread, with is the foundation of living traditions.
$20 Per Gallon
Christopher Steiner, Grand Central Publishing, 2009.
Without doubt, the most optimistic take to date on the implications of the inevitable rise in gas prices.
Blink
Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown, and Company, 2005.
Free Agent Nation
Daniel H. Pink, Business Plus, 2002.
Pink lays out a new form of doing business that is overtaking the corporate model.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Thomas L. Friedman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Friedman’s follow-up to The World is Flat looks at implications of flattening and population growth on sustainability. It was the first best-seller outside the New Urbanism to properly affix blame to the patterns of sprawl.
Linked
Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, Plume, 2003.
Long Emergency, The
James Howard Kunstler, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005.
Long Tail, The
Chris Anderson, Hyperion, 2008.
Groundbreaking book laying out the mechanics of the new niche-based markets that toppled the long-running “greatest hits” system, and is radically changing both the publishing and music industries.
New Rules for the New Economy
Kevin Kelly, Penguin, 1998.
Considered obsolete by some because it was written before the dot-com bubble, it nonetheless contains a number of foundation ideas applicable to what we’re building today.
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown, 2008.
Tipping Point, The
Malcolm Gladwell, Back Bay Books, 2002.
Whole New Mind, A
Daniel Pink, Riverhead Books, 2005.
Pink proposes that the era of left-brained dominance is giving way to an age when the scales tip to the right-brained creatives.
Wisdom of Crowds, The
James Surowiecki, Anchor, 2005.
Great description of the new collaborative environment that is flourishing outside the walls of “Fort Business.”
World is Flat, The
Thomas L. Friedman, Picador, 2007.
This important work examines the confluence of a number of trends that have leveled the global playing field between the West and developing nations.
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