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Becoming Jane Jacobs First Draft 2009, Peter L. Laurence

Publications

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), did not like the term “urban design” and did not describe herself as an architectural critic, but contributed significantly to the development of American architectural criticism and the new field of urban design. Although relatively little is known about Jacobs’ intellectual development, her influences, and her early writing career, before Death and Life was published, Jacobs was already among the most influential critics of urban renewal in the country. The book was a culmination of many years of studying and writing about the city; of working …