DREAM CITIES

"Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape The World", by Wade Graham, is a dream book for armchair urbanists. The book is not long, but Graham covers the seven architectural concepts that he claims have influenced the development of cities over the years. His seven, "Castles", "Monuments", "Slabs", "Homesteads", "Corals", "Malls", and "Habitats" , are fleshed out by giving the prime architects who either conceived the ideas or were leading practitioners of them.Let's take "Slabs". These are those rows of tall buildings designed to house people on masse. Think Robert Moses - city planner of New York City - who proposed these buildings as both offices and apartments. As Wade Graham writes, "Building slabs has been a collective exercise, or at least a widespread one...Many tens of thousands of different agents - architects, planners, developers, governments - have built them to supply new housing for growing populations, and to accommodate new modes of transportation, especially cars. In this sense, slabs were a "rational" choice made by many people in many places, in response to actual modern conditions". The reader might ask, "what WERE these conditions that required these soulless pieces of concrete?Well, in the 1930's and on, when Robert Moses was charged with modernising the city of New York and the boroughs, he proposed these building to house the growing population. They were to house people whose neighborhoods had been destroyed by both urban blight and the roads and highways Moses was proposing to slash though the city. Graham writes about how many of Moses' plans were never built - the LOMEX through lower Manhattan, for instance - many in response to community protests at the destruction of their settled neighborhoods. Jane Jacobs - author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" - was a foremost opponent of Moses' lofty plans. In the relatively short chapter on "Slabs", Wade Graham goes into detail about slabs, Robert Moses, and Swiss architect Le Corbusier.Now, maybe you're not interested in "Slabs"; there are plenty of other sections in Graham's book to curl up with. His book is wonderful, because it is a book that spurs the reader on to investigate further. Reading the book on an Ipad is perfect because I can flip to Wiki to look up a term or person I was unfamiliar with. Graham also gives pictures and a lexicon at the end of each chapter. I really did love this book and all I learned from it.

Good book with some interesting ideas on Urbanism. A very easy read and the author keeps a good pace with info. Overall a very enjoyable book.

It goes beyond my expectations, lots of interesting history about cities and architects, love this book!

This book was good if you were looking to learn more about the history or evolution of architecture, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. The book dances back and forth between the style of development and the architects who inspired them, so its more of a historical account mixed with biographies of the architects without making conclusions outright as to the effectiveness of the urban idea. This might work well for architects reading the book, but for a layperson like myself I’m turning to experts to assess what works and what doesn’t. In this books case, it felt more like it was written by a historian, not an expert in how to make sure a city applies the best practices to it’s urban planning.

If you're into urban planning or are curious about cities, this is a great text to dive into.

Fascinating book, very well written, clever and insightful review of seven different architectural concepts, complete with photos.

Received the book and holding for Christmas.

Was purchased as a gift and was well received. We had heard it discussed on NPR and thought it would be good to read.