Published by Metropolis Books By Vishaan Chakrabarti. Foreword by Norman Foster. Illustrations by SHoP Architects.
“Chakrabarti has written a wonderful book about the potential of America’s cities. He argues convincingly how the country would benefit economically and environmentally if the suburbs started to move back to the cities, and he offers specific policy suggestions to accomplish that objective. Read this book, and you’ll want to live in a city.” –Former US Senator Bill Bradley
In A Country of Cities, author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build “a Country of Cities,” to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.
Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, scholar and founder of PAU. PAU designs architecture that builds the physical, cultural, and economic networks of cities, with an emphasis on beauty, function and user experience. PAU simultaneously advances strategic urbanism projects in the form of master planning, tactical project advice and advocacy.
Featured graph is reproduced from A Country of Citites.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Surface Magazine
Jordan Kushins
Step aside, suburban sprawl: America's cities are growing at a pace unseeen for the past century. This expansion warrants an evaluation of how these hubs can sustainably support their citizens in the future. Hotshot Columbia professor and SHoP patner Vishaan Chakrabarti provides compelling arguments - complemented by smart infographics - for mass-transit systems and public parks.
Architectural Record
Clifford A. Pearson
Architect, planner, and one-time developer Vishaan Chakrabarti asks us to imagine a United States in which government invests in high-speed trains linking high-density cities and does not subsidize suburban sprawl. He admits this sounds a bit naive in an era of political paralysis and at a time when the middle class and wealthy - no matter their political affiliation - enjoy perks like the mortgage- interest deduction that help perpetuate the status quo. But he builds his argument with straightforward prose and lots of easy-to-read charts and graphs.
Azure
Elizabeth Pagliacolo
The author, a partner at SHOP Architects in New York, lays out his case for why the entire United States must embrace high-density urbanization (defined as 10 or more dwellings per hectare) as the only feasible way to resuscitate the economy and overall public wellness. He pits his version of the American Dream (living in a city with access to well-designed mixed-income housing, mass transit and an array of services) against what he calls the American Scheme (owning a big suburban house, and driving your gas-guzzling SUV on the highway to get home to it every day). This impassioned manifesto, with a foreword by Norman Foster, is complemented by wondeful drawings from his colleagues at SHOP, including one that shows the entire world population fitting into the state of Texas to illustrate that, yes, we can and should use our land resources more wisely.
Toronto Globe & Mail
Alex Bozikovic
In the world of urbanism and planning, there’s been a barrage of recent books on similar themes….But Mr. Chakrabarti has written maybe the most useful one, a polemic in favour of city living that makes the stakes clear.
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Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley include Metropolis Books' best-seller, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for Urban America in their list of "13 books you should investigate if you want to know more about why cities and metros matter, about the magnitude of the challenges that they are taking on, and about how they can do better." continue to blog
Vishaan Chakrabarti is a partner at SHoP Architects, the director of Columbia's Center for Urban Real Estate, and the author of A Country of Cities, published by Metropolis Books. His Op-Ed piece for the July 22 issue of Crain's is excerpted below. continue to blog
Influential architect, urban planner and director of Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate Vishaan Chakrabarti speaks with Charlie Rose about his audacious new manifesto for an urban America, A Country of Cities, published by Metropolis Books. continue to blog
In this week's issue of Places Journal, Metropolis Books author Vishaan Chakrabarti (director of Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate and partner at SHoP Architects), contributes a "bold argument for hyperdensity," excerpted from his new manifesto for an urban America, A Country of Cities. The book launches Monday night at the Scholastic Auditorium, with a lecture and book signing hosted by the Architectural League of New York. Morphosis founder Thom Mayne will deliver the introduction. Featured image—a detail of SHoP Architects' illustration, “Compact Dense Development Leaves Nature Natural,” from the chapter Cities, Sustainability, and Resilience—is reproduced from A Country of Cities.
continue to blog
Last night, Metropolis Books launched Vishaan Chakrabarti's visionary manifesto for an urban America, A Country of Cities, at Manhattan's storied Century Club on West 43rd Street. Seemingly all of New York's biggest players in design, architecture, real estate development and urban planning were in attendance, including Amanda Burden, Chakrabarti's former colleague at the Department of City Planning; Gregg Pasquarelli and other partners at SHoP Architects; Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green Realty Corp; and Pentagram's Michael Bierut, who designed A Country of Cities and acted as an uncommonly brilliant master of ceremonies. Photographs by Gerard Garvey. continue to blog
“In a world in which cities become more important each year, Chakrabarti has written a wonderful book about the potential of America’s cities. He argues convincingly how the country would benefit economically and environmentally if the suburbs started to move back to the cities, and he offers specific policy suggestions to accomplish that objective. Read this book, and you’ll want to live in a city.” – Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley
“Few things are more important to our environmental future than working cities. This book demonstrates with clarity, beauty, and great impact both why and how urban policy could change our prospects for the better.” – Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
A Country of Cities is a brilliant intervention in the debate over the future of the American metropolis. Chakrabarti offers a compelling case for a dense yet elegant urbanism that really works, and an innovative plan for getting us there. It should be required reading for all who care about cities and the survival of our planet.” – Jennifer Wolch, William W. Wurster Dean, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley
"In the world of urbanism and planning, there’s been a barrage of recent books on similar themes... But Mr. Chakrabarti has written maybe the most useful one, a polemic in favor of city living that makes the stakes clear." – Alex Bozikovic, Toronto Globe and Mail
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FORMAT: Hbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 252 pgs / 150 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $39.95 ISBN: 9781935202172 PUBLISHER: Metropolis Books AVAILABLE: 5/30/2013 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WRLD Export via T&H
A Country of Cities A Manifesto for an Urban America
Published by Metropolis Books. By Vishaan Chakrabarti. Foreword by Norman Foster. Illustrations by SHoP Architects.
“Chakrabarti has written a wonderful book about the potential of America’s cities. He argues convincingly how the country would benefit economically and environmentally if the suburbs started to move back to the cities, and he offers specific policy suggestions to accomplish that objective. Read this book, and you’ll want to live in a city.” –Former US Senator Bill Bradley
In A Country of Cities, author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build “a Country of Cities,” to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.
Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, scholar and founder of PAU. PAU designs architecture that builds the physical, cultural, and economic networks of cities, with an emphasis on beauty, function and user experience. PAU simultaneously advances strategic urbanism projects in the form of master planning, tactical project advice and advocacy.