Urban Planners: Take the Leadership Role in Urban Design

Designing a good community entails so much more than architecture. But all too often, architects lead the discussion on urban design. In her clarion call for real community-based urban design, Emily Talen challenges urban planners to reengage in urban design to ensure that it supports and promotes diverse, sustainable, vibrant, and equitable communities.

Urban Design for Planners: Tools, Techniques, and Strategies is for anyone with an interest in the built environment

This book is a step-by-step guide to observing, analyzing, and designing civic-minded, well-functioning, and pedestrian-oriented places. For planners to connect urban design to social objectives, they need the proper urban design tools.

The book is organized as an easy-to-use manual of 10 exercises that rely on three types of software: mapping/spatial analysis (GIS), 3-D modeling (SketchUp), and graphics.

Anyone with a little background in GIS and a few other user-friendly software programs can get up and running with the exercises in no time. The book also includes an extensive list of discussion questions and additional activities to help planners understand and execute urban design.

About the Author

Emily Talen is Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago. Her research is devoted to urban design and the relationship between the built environment and social equity. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2014-15), and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She is also the instructor of Planetizen's AICP Exam Preparation Class and several videos for Planetizen Courses. Her next book, to be published in 2018, is called Neighborhood. She has a PhD in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Praise for Urban Design for Planners

“Ideas are nice. Implementation is nicer. Talen succeeds in taking theory to the streets (and cul-de-sac) with her focused and inspired toolkit.”

- Allison Arieff, “By Design” columnist, New York Times

Details
Author: Emily Talen
Print version: Color
Pages: 140
ISBN: 978-0990616245

Also available in PDF.