What makes a great city? Not a good city or a functional city but a great city. A city that people admire, learn from, and replicate. City planner and architect Alexander Garvin set out to answer this question by observing cities, largely in North America and Europe, with special attention to Paris, London, New York, and Vienna.
For Garvin, greatness is not just about the most beautiful, convenient, or well-managed city; it isn鈥檛 even about any 鈥渃ity.鈥� It is about what people who shape cities can do to make a city great. A great city is not an exquisite, completed artifact. It is a dynamic, constantly changing place that residents and their leaders can reshape to satisfy their demands. While this book does discuss the history, demographic composition, politics, economy, topography, history, layout, architecture, and planning of great cities, it is not about these aspects alone. Most importantly, it is about the interplay between people and public realm, and how they have interacted throughout history to create great cities.
To open the book, Garvin explains that a great public realm attracts and retains the people who make a city great. He describes exactly what the term public realm means, its most important characteristics, as well as providing examples of when and how these characteristics work, or don鈥檛. An entire chapter is devoted to a discussion of how particular components of the public realm (squares in London, parks in Minneapolis, and streets in Madrid) shape people鈥檚 daily lives. He concludes with a look at how twenty-first century initiatives in Paris, Houston, Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Toronto are making an already fine public realm even better鈥攊nitiatives that demonstrate what other cities can do to improve.
What Makes a Great City will help readers understand that any city can be changed for the better and inspire entrepreneurs, public officials, and city residents to do it themselves.
"Imagine you're a renowned author, an adjunct member of the faculty at Yale University, and the president of AGA Public Realm Strategists. Would you be surprised if you found yourself unable to answer a question about the fundamental nature of cities? That was the dilemma facing Alexander Garvin as he pondered a question from a friend: "What makes a great city?" Given the resources afforded to someone with the aforementioned accomplishments, Garvin set out to answer the question by traveling the world and identifying the common traits of great cities. His conclusion: people make cities great, and only in cities with great public realms do people have the opportunity to make a great city."鈥�Planetizen
"Garvin here explores the importance of public spaces to public life —and how a 'great' city, unlike a great painting or sculpture, is not an exquisite, completed artifact."鈥�San Francisco Chronicle
"A well-researched and compelling treatise on how cities become and remain great, What Makes a Great City is something else as well: a love letter to the ideals of urban life at its best."鈥�Civil Engineering
"For urbanists, planners, and architects who appreciate well-designed public spaces, Alexander Garvin’s latest publication delivers a carefully constructed tour of cities that accomplish this goal. He shows how they successfully created or enhanced parks, plazas, and squares or established a broader array of civic improvements to attract investment and enhance quality of life."鈥�Architectural Record
"For those who dream of spending a few days talking with an experienced planner who combines a detailed knowledge of many cities with a structure of thought to place those details in...well, that might not happen. Luckily, we have Alexander Garvin's What Makes a Great City. It's somewhat more personal, but no less rigorous, than his earlier books."鈥�Planning
"When I was the mayor of Miami, Alex Garvin inspired me to improve the city by enhancing its public realm鈥攊ts streets, squares, and parks. Now, by reading What Makes a Great City, you, too, can be inspired to make the investments that will help your city prosper, compete in a globally competitive economy, and provide generations to come with a better future."鈥擬anny Diaz, former Mayor of Miami and former President of the United States Conference of Mayors
"Hundreds of photo illustrations, good writing, and nice organization make What Makes a Great City a perfect volume to add to the libraries of city planners, architects, local politicans, and civic leaders."鈥�Manhattan Book Review
"Garvin's previous books...are must-reads for all students of the city. In this latest book, he grabs the reader in the introduction by explaining how he came to write it: he was asked to name the cities he considers great and why. The result is a visual picnic, thanks to Garvin's gorgeous photographs...and an important addition to planning literature."鈥�Yale Constructs
"Only a great urban raconteur and connoisseur like Alex Garvin can lead you, with his observant eye and erudite mind, through such an enlightening journey. This is an absolute must-read for students and lovers of cities worldwide."鈥擱icky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science
"Garvin reveals the animating life force within cities from Barcelona to Brooklyn with the sharp eye of an architect, an anthropologist, and an economist, and with the ardent ability to distinguish great public places from mere space."鈥擩anette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates, former New York City Transportation Commissioner
"For cities and the public realm, Alexander Garvin is a modern-day Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexander von Humboldt wrapped together and tied up with a bow! His keen, wise observations, analysis, and insights in What Makes a Great City are a splendid gift to urbanites around the world."鈥擡ugenie L. Birch, Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
