Jane Jacobs, Foe of Plans and Friend of City Life · Sep 25, 10:14 AM
Today’s NY Times contains a mostly enthusiastic review of the exhibition JANE JACOBS AND THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK now on view at the Municipal Art Society’s Urban Center galleries at 457 Madison Avenue in New York City. The Princeton Architectural Press companion volume is available on-site and online at Urban Center books as well as fine bookstores everywhere.
Here’s a quote from Edward Rothstein’s review:
“This is still a valuable exhibition, though, because like Jacobs’s ideas, it is grounded not in theory, but in experience. “Please look closely,” urges the introductory panel after you enter the modest galleries through an archway of monitors showing the street life of contemporary New York.”
“As a demonstration of some of Jacobs’s most important ideas, such displays are excellent; they focus on “four key qualities of healthy, vibrant cities”: 1) Streets should have mixed use, with retail and residences mingled. 2) Streets should be frequent, without too many long blocks, thus encouraging interaction and exploration. 3) Buildings should be varied in purpose and design and, ideally, date from different eras. And 4) urban concentration is important and encourages diversity. Jacobs’s observations, the exhibition argues, remain critical to New York today.”
Timothy Mennel, Jo Steffens, and Christopher Klemek, editors
Block by Block examines the lasting impact and continued relevance of Jane Jacobs’s work on contemporary urban life. An impressive lineup of highly acclaimed writers, historians, architects, civic leaders, and cultural critics speculates on how Jacobs’s ideas continue to inform the power brokers, politicians, ordinary citizens, and grassroots activists influencing the physical transformation of New York and, by extension, all great cities today.
Contributors include Marshall Berman, Nathan Glazer, David Grahame Shane, Saskia Sassen, Adam Gopnik, Malcolm Gladwell and Danny Lyon.
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