Death And Life Of Great American Cities By Jane Jacob

341 Words2 Pages
Stated to be “one of the most influential critics of US planning orthodoxies holding sway during the 1950’s and 60’s,” Jane Jacobs, the American – Canadian writer and activist, is a central figure in the urbanisation of city planning. Published in 1961, her famous assault on modernist misconceptions casted by architects, is documented in her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” one of the most influential and paramount critiques of traditional planning. It evaluates the failure of the modern movement to provide the social redemption the famous architects promised, changing the traditional attitude towards planning and the way cities are perceived. In this essay I will be discussing Jane Jacob’s criticisms and alternatives to