Citymakers

(Paperback)

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A crucial look at the diverse and rapidly evolving methods that make up urban practice today. Citymakers is a useful and timely analysis of the state of urbanism today. Cassim Shepard, former editor of the online publication Urban Omnibus (urbanomnibus.net) examines the shifting dynamics and urgent needs of the economies, environments, and citizens of today's cities, issuing a call to align civic participation with urban life. Informed by the best examples of innovative urban theory and action globally, it profiles a selection of projects, perspectives, and the individuals responsible for them, whether they be local residents working in a community garden, an architecture firm, or City Hall. With chapters focusing on five primary areas of urban practice-public space, infrastructure, technology, housing, and communication-Shepard refreshes traditional concepts of urban intervention. He synthesizes narrative field reports from the front lines of urban practice with up-to-the-minute arguments about how and why to reframe our understanding of urbanism for the twenty-first century. In an era when civic-minded design innovation flourishes despite economic crisis, this book will provide a lasting document of new intellectual realignments, disciplinary coalitions, and innovative perspectives around cities. Citymakers will mark an important moment in the broader mission of showing a wide public that cities are made by the creative choices of individuals. Highlighting the diversity, quality, and creativity of current projects that offer citizens new ways to interpret, imagine, or intervene in urban life and landscape is a means to encourage better choices in cities of the future.

Reviews

"Shepard, founding editor of the online publication Urban Omnibus, presents readers with a rich view of the challenges of and opportunities for sustainable "citymaking" in an era of increasing economic inequality and destabilizing climate change.... The book offers a passionate and informed plea for citizens at the local level to recognize and invest in both daily and long-range projects that support the urban environment." - Publishers Weekly

"There are many hundreds of books being written about cities today but very few that make the leap beyond the academy. Citymakers is that rare wonder: a solidly researched, compelling argument for a reinvention of urbanism, told in beautiful prose that is accessible to anyone who is interested in how cities work. Cassim Shepard has brought his keen eye, his nimble brain, and his generous heart to this exploration of cities, and produced a landmark that I will be turning to again and again." - Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

"To respond to a contemporary urban condition challenged by growing inequality and rising seas, designers must engage the creative coalitions emerging among citizen-activists, ecologists, artists, and public servants. In Citymakers, Cassim Shepard suggests new methods of engagement, offering a vital account of how - and by whom - cities are made today." - Sir David Adjaye, architect, lead designer of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

"The right to the city resides in the diffusion of planning power, capacity, and creativity as the hallmarks of democratic urbanity. The dedicated "citymakers" described in this wise and generous book work at many scales - and via many practices - to ameliorate the city both physically and socially. Cassim Shepard situates their inspiring stories in an ethical and conceptual context that probes how we might harmonize a shared political economy and a sustainable built environment." - Michael Sorkin, author of Twenty Minutes in Manhatta

"As the ownership of urban land is increasingly consolidated in fewer and fewer hands, we must highlight small acts of citizenship and design that reaffirm the values of public life and the public goods we hold in common. In Citymakers, Cassim Shepard does just this by combining narrative field reports of contemporary local practitioners with a broad reading of the intellectual history of the city." - Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy

Author Bio

Cassim Shepard is the founding editor-in-chief of Urban Omnibus, the online publication of The Architectural League of New York. For the past six years, he has worked with hundreds of local architects, designers, artists, writers, and public servants to share their stories of urban innovation, with a particular emphasis on housing, infrastructure, and the changing nature of cultural institutions. In addition to his editorial role, Shepard makes films about the design, planning, and experience of cities and places. His film and video work has been screened at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Ford Foundation, and the United Nations, among many other venues around the world. His writing on urbanism has appeared in Next City, Places, Domus, Public Culture, as well as in books and catalogues documenting work by Geoff Manaugh, David Adjaye, and others. He has taught courses at the Cities Programme of the London School of Economics and Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. From 2010 to 2013, he was a Poiesis Fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He studied filmmaking at Harvard University, urban geography at the University of London, and urban planning at MIT.