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MY LIBRARY

Most of the books on this list have been recommended by excellent planners and other authors, some of whom I have met or contacted directly. Other excellent planners who are no longer with us (e.g., William H. Whyte and Donald Appleyard) provided recommendations within their books.

Like anything else in life, I believe that you have to learn the trade from the best to become the best.

I am always open to suggestions to improve/enhance my collection. (
Email Me)

Books in my Collection
  • Alain de Botton - The Architecture of Happiness
  • Aldo Leopold - A Sand County Almanac
  • Alexander Garvin - The American City: What Works and What Doesn't
  • Alexander Garvin et al. - Urban Parks and Open Space
  • Alice Sparberg Alexiou - Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary
  • Allan B. Jacobs - Great Streets
  • Allan B. Jacobs - Making City Planning Work
  • Allan B. Jacobs - The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards
  • Andrea Palladio - The Four Books of Architecture
  • Andreas Faludi - A Reader in Planning Theory
  • Andres Duany et al. - Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream
  • August Heckscher - Open Spaces: The Life of American Cities
  • Benton MacKaye - The New Exploration: A Philosophy of Regional Planning
  • Bernard Rudofsky - Streets for People
  • Bert Sperling and Peter Sander - Best Places to Raise Your Family: The Top 100 Affordable Communities in the U.S.
  • Bert Sperling and Peter Sander - Cities Ranked and Rated (2nd Edition)
  • Bonnie Kahn - Cosmopolitan Culture: The Gilt-Edged Dream of a Tolerant City
  • Bruce McClendon and Ray Quay - Mastering Change: Winning Strategies for Effective City Planning
  • Charles Hoch, Linda Dalton and Frank So - Practice of Local Government Planning (3rd Edition), "The Green Book/Green Bible"
  • Christopher Alexander - The Timeless Way of Building
  • David Ammons - Municipal Benchmarks
  • David Engwicht - Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living With Less Traffic
  • David Engwicht - Street Reclaiming: Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities
  • David Sucher - City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village
  • Dolores Hayden - Redesigning the American Dream
  • Donald Appleyard - Livable Streets
  • Donald Krueckeberg and Arthur Silvers - Urban Planning Analysis: Methods and Models
  • Duane Elgin - Voluntary Simplicity: An Ecological Lifestyle That Promotes Personal and Social Renewal
  • E. F. Schumacher - Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
  • Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
  • Erik Larson - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
  • Ebenezer Howard - Garden Cities of To-Morrow
  • Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder - Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States
  • Francis Stuart Chapin - Urban Land Use Planning
  • Frank Lloyd Wright - The Future of Architecture
  • Freada Kapor Klein - Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help them Stay
  • Frederick Winslow Taylor - The Principles of Scientific Management
  • Friedrich August Hayek - The Road to Serfdom
  • Frigyes (Fred) Agoston Schwilgin - Town Planning Guidelines
  • Gordon Cullen - The Concise Townscape
  • Harvey Perloff - Education for Planning
  • Herbert Gans - The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans
  • Herbert Smith - The Citizen's Guide to Planning
  • Ian McHarg - Design With Nature
  • J. Brian McLoughlin - Urban and Regional Planning: A Systems Approach
  • Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt - The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Certainty
  • James Howard Kunstler - Geography of Nowhere
  • James Howard Kunstler - Home from Nowhere
  • James Howard Kunstler - The City In Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition
  • James Marston Fitch - American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape It
  • Jan Carlzon - Moments of Truth
  • Jane Holtz Kay - Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back
  • Jane Jacobs - Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life
  • Jane Jacobs - Death and Life of Great American Cities
  • Jane Jacobs - Systems of Survival
  • Jane Jacobs - The Nature of Economies
  • Jenifer Fox - Your Child's Strengths: A Guide for Parents and Teachers
  • Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin - Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence
  • Joel Garreau - Edge City: Life on the New Frontier
  • John Beardsley - Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape
  • John Degrove - Land, Growth & Politics
  • John Friedmann – Retracking America
  • John Brinckerhoff Jackson - Discovering the Vernacular Landscape
  • John Maxwell - The 360 Degree Leader
  • John Norquist - The Wealth of Cities
  • Jonathan Barnett - Urban Design as Public Policy: Practical Methods for Improving Cities
  • Karl Albrecht - At America's Service: How Your Company Can Join the Customer Service Revolution
  • Karl Albrecht - The Northbound Train: Finding the Purpose, Setting the Direction, Shaping the Destiny of Your Organization
  • Ken Blanchard - Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization
  • Kenneth Halpern - Downtown USA: Urban Design in Nine American Cities
  • Kenneth T. Jackson - Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States
  • Kevin Lynch - Image of the City
  • Kevin Lynch - Site Planning
  • Laura Wood Roper - FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
  • Lawrence Miller - American Spirit: Visions of a New Corporate Culture
  • Le Corbusier - Towards a New Architecture
  • Lewis Mumford - Roots of Contemporary American Architecture: 37 Essays from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present
  • Lewis Mumford - Sticks & Stones: A Study of American Architecture and Civilization
  • Lewis Mumford - The Culture of Cities
  • Lewis Mumford - The Urban Prospect
  • Lynn Sloman - Car Sick: Solutions for Our Car-Addicted Culture
  • Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
  • Malcolm Knowles - Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers
  • Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman - First, Break All The Rules: What The Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently
  • Marcus Buckingham - Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
  • Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton - Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Build Your Strengths and the Strengths of Every Person in Your Organization
  • Mark Cramer - Funkytowns USA: The Best Alternative, Eclectic, Irreverent and Visionary Places
  • Marvin Weisbord - Discovering Common Ground: How Future Search Conferences Bring People Together to Achieve Breakthrough Innovation, Empowerment, Shared Vision, and Collaborative Action
  • Marvin Weisbord - Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!
  • Marvin Weisbord - Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities
  • Marvin Weisbord - Productive Workplaces: Organizing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning, and Community
  • Mel Scott - American City Planning Since 1890: A History Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Institute of Planners
  • Melville Branch - Comprehensive City Planning: Introduction & Explanation
  • Michael Corbett - Find It, Fix It, Flip It!
  • Michael Hammer and James Champy - Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution
  • Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
  • Patricia Schultz - 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List
  • Patricia Schultz - 1,000 Places To See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die
  • Paul Goodman and Percival Goodman - Communitas
  • Peter Calthorpe - The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream
  • Peter Hall - The World Cities
  • Peter Harnik - Inside City Parks (autographed)
  • Philip Langdon - Better Place to Live
  • Rachel Carson - Silent Spring
  • Randal O'Toole - The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths: How Smart Growth Will Harm American Cities
  • Ray Oldenburg - The Great Good Place: Cafes Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salong, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community
  • Raymond Curran - Architecture and the Urban Experience
  • Richard Babcock - The Zoning Game: Municipal Practices and Policies
  • Richard Florida - The Flight Of The Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent
  • Richard Florida - The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life
  • Richard Florida - Who's Your City
  • Richard Harris - Creeping Conformity: How Canada Became Suburban, 1900-1960
  • Robert Burchell - Fiscal Impact Handbook: Estimating Local Costs and Revenues of Land Development
  • Robert E. Kelley - How to Be a Star at Work: 9 Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed
  • Robert Lynd and Helen Lynd - Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture
  • Robert Putnam - Better Together: Restoring the American Community
  • Roberta Brandes Gratz - The Living City: How America's Cities are Being Revitalizedby Thinking Small in a Big Way (autographed)
  • Roberta Brandes Gratz - Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown (autographed)
  • Silvia Barry Sutton - Civilizing American Cities: A Selction of Frederick Law Olmsted's Writings on City Landscapes
  • Sarah Susanka - The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way we Really Live
  • Scott Berg - Grand Avenues
  • Scott Frank and Andy Heller - Buy Even Lower: The Regular People's Guide to Real Estate Riches
  • Spiro Kostof - America by Design
  • Terry Pindell - A Good Place to Live: America's Last Migration
  • The Rockefeller Foundation - Century of the City: No Time to Lose
  • Thomas Friedman - Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How it Can Renew America
  • Timothy Beatley - Ethical Land Use: Principles of Policy and Planning
  • Timothy Beatley - Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home and Community in a Global Age
  • Todd Litman and Suzanne Kort - The Best Bike Rides in the Pacific Northwest: British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, Washington
  • Todd Litman and Suzanne Kort - Washington: Off the Beaten Path/a Guide to Unique Places
  • Tony Hiss - The Experience of Place: A New Way of Looking at and Dealing with out Radically Changing Cities and Countryside
  • United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development - Our Common Future
  • Victor Gruen - The Heart of our Cities
  • Vitruvius Pollio - The Ten Books on Architecture
  • W.G. Roeseler - Successful American Urban Plan
  • Walt Disney - How it Works in the City
  • William Hollingsworth Whyte - City: Rediscovering the Center
  • William Hollingsworth Whyte - The Last Landscape
  • William Hollingsworth Whyte - The Organization Man
  • William Hollingsworth Whyte - The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
  • William McDonough and Michael Braungart - Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
  • William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel - Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth
  • William C. Taylor and Polly Labarre - Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
  • Witold Rybczynski - A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century
  • Witold Rybczynski - Home: A Short History of an Idea
  • Wolf Von Eckardt - A Place to Live: The Crisis of the Cities
  • Wolf Von Eckardt - Back to the Drawing Board: Planning Livable Cities
  • Honorable Mention: Frederick Gage Todd - To my knowledge he did not write any books but I have many of his articles/writings.
Wish List - Other Books I'm Looking For
  • Alexander Garvin - Parks, Recreation and Open Space: A Twenty-First Century Agenda
  • Bernard Tschumi - Manhattan Transcripts: Theoretical Projects
  • Boris Pushkarev - Urban Space for Pedestrians
  • Camillo Sitte - City Planning According to Artistic Principles
  • Carol Barrett - Everyday Ethics for Practicing Planners
  • Caroline Emerson - Make Way for the Thruway
  • Christopher Alexander et al. - A New Theory of Urban Design
  • Christopher Alexander - A Pattern Language
  • Christopher Alexander - The Oregon Experiment
  • Christopher Tunnard and Henry Hope Reed - American Skyline
  • Clarence Stein - Toward New Towns for America
  • Colin Buchanan - Traffic in Towns: A Study of the Long Term Problems of Traffic in Urban Areas
  • Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter - Collage City
  • Donald Shoup - The High Cost of Free Parking
  • Donella Meadows et al. - The Limits to Growth
  • Donna Erickson - MetroGreen: Connecting Open Space in North American Cities
  • Douglas Farr - Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature
  • Edmund Bacon - Design of Cities
  • Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson - Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs
  • Forster Ndubisi - Ecological Planning: A Historical and Comparative Synthesis
  • Gordon Cullen - Townscape
  • Hamid Shirvani - The Urban Design Process
  • Howard Frumkin et al. - Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
  • Jan Gehl - Life between Buildings: Using Public Space
  • Jan Gehl and Lars Gemzoe - New City Spaces, Strategies and Projects
  • Jane Jacobs - Dark Age Ahead
  • Jane Jacobs - The Economy of Cities
  • John Friedmann - Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action
  • John Nolen - New Towns for Old
  • John Punter - The Vancouver Achievement
  • Kevin Lynch - (A Theory of) Good City Form
  • Lee Sobel et al. - Greyfields into Goldfields: Dead Malls become Living Neighborhoods
  • Patrick Geddes - Cities in Evolution
  • Paul Zucker - The ABZ's of Planning Management (2nd Edition)
  • Paul Zucker - What Your Planning Professors Forgot to Tell You
  • Peter Calthorpe - The Regional City
  • Peter Hall - Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century
  • Project for Public Spaces - How To Turn a Place Around: A Handbook for Creating Successful Public Spaces
  • Ralph Knowles - The Ritual House
  • Randall Arendt - Rural by Design
  • Ray Oldenburg - Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities
  • Raymond Unwin - Town Planning in Practice
  • Reid Ewing - Best Development Practices
  • Reid Ewing - Developing Successful New Communities
  • Resa Steindel Brown - The Call to Brilliance: A True Story to Inspire Parents and Educators
  • Richard T.T. Forman, Wenche Dramstad, and James D. Olson - Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning
  • Richard T.T. Forman - Road Ecology: Science and Solutions
  • Richard T.T. Forman - Urban Regions: Ecology and Planning Beyond the City
  • Rob H. G. Jongman and Gloria Pungetti - Ecological Networks and Greenways: Concept, Design, Implementation
  • Robert Putnam - Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
  • Spiro Kostof - The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History
  • Spiro Kostof - The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History
  • Suzaan Boettger - Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the Sixties
  • Thomas Adams - Outline of Town and City Planning
  • Thomas Adams - Rural Planning and Development
  • Timothy Beatley - Green Urbanism: Learning From European Cities
  • William Hollingsworth Whyte - Is Anybody Listening?

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