My introduction to Jane Jacobs was completely ordinary. Like many, many architecture students since its publication in 1962, I read The Death and Life of Great American Cities for an introductory course in urbanism. Jacobs was a joy to read, whip-crack smart and caustically funny, and she wrote in impeccable, old-school sentences that convinced you with their unimpeded flow. She explained her ideas in utterly clear and simple language. Planners are “pavement pounding” or “Olympian.” There are “foot people and car people.”
Why were we reading her? I expect it was to encourage us to look harder at the city, and to imbibe some of her spirited advocacy for experience over expertise. It was a captivating message and delivered at the right time. Today it seems as though everybody interested in cities has read at least part of Death and Life and found personal affirmation in it. Michael Kimmelman wrote, “It said what I knew instinctively to be true.” For...
Lev Bratishenko has written for Abitare, Canadian Architect, Cabinet, the CBC, Disegno, Gizmodo, The Guardian, Icon, Maclean’s, the Montreal Gazette, Opera News and Uncube. He is co-editor of It’s All Happening So Fast: A Counter-History of the Modern Canadian Environment, the book that accompanies the eponymous exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Advertisement
Advertisement