"Hank lived by the credo, 'first listen, then design'.'Scott Bernstein, Founder and Chief Strategy + Innovation Officer, Center for Neighborhood Technology
Hank Dittmar was a globally recognized urban planner, advocate, and policy advisor. He wrote extensively on a wide range of topics, including architectural criticism, community planning, and transportation policy over his long and storied career.
In My Kind of City, Dittmar has organized his selected writings into ten sections with original introductions. His observations range on scale from local ("My Favorite Street: Seven Dials, Covent Garden, London") to national ("Post Truth Architecture in the Age of Trump") and global ("Architects are Critical to Adapting our Cities to Climate Change"). Andrés Duany writes of Hank in the book foreword, He has continued to search for ways to engage place, community and history in order to avoid the tempting formalism of plans.a
The range of topics covered inMy Kind of City reflects the breadth of Dittmar's experience in working for better cities for people. Common themes emerge in the engaging prose including Dittmar's belief that improving our cities should not be left to the expertsa; his appreciation for the beautiful and the messy; and his rare combination of deep expertise and modesty. As Lynn Richards, CEO of Congress for the New Urbanism expresses in the preface, Hank's writing is smart without being elitist, witty and poetic, succinct and often surprising.a
My Kind of Citycaptures a visionary planner's spirit, eye for beauty, and love for the places where we live.
Note from the Publisher
Foreword by Andrés Duany Preface by Lynn Richards
Part 1. My Kind of Town New Orleans is My Kind of Town, Architecture Today Auckland: At Water's Edge I Could Learn to Love LA All Over Again, Planetizena My Favorite Street: Seven Dials, Covent Garden, London, From Victor Dover and John Massengale, Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns by John Massengale and Victor Dover
Part 2. The Cavaliers vs. the Roundheads Style Wars are Irrelevant when Architecture is Reduced to Floor-plate Cladding, Building Designa Southbank Scheme isn't Wrong, it's Just Bland, Building Designa When Will Stirling laureates be allowed to quote from Wren?, Building Designa People in Glass Houses, Building Designa Continuity or Contrast: Take Your Pick, Building Designa Three Classicists: Classicism in an Era of Pluralism, From Three Classicists, by Ben Pentreath, George Saumarez Smith, and Francis Terry
Part 3. Continuity and Context Continuity and Context in Urbanism and Architecture: the Honesty of a Living Tradition, Conservation Bulletin 59a Linking Lincoln: Legacy, Ecology and Commerce, from Pienza: Legacy, Continuity and Traditiona, Seaside Pienza Institute
Part 4. Bouquets and Brickbats London's Skyscraper Designers Should Aim High Like Chicago, Building Designa An Urbanist's View of the Stirling Shortlist, Building Designa Don't Students Need Proper Housing?, Building Designa The Urbanists' Stirling Prize, Building Designa Location Dictates the Success of Monument Design, Building Designa It's Time for a New Serpentine Pavilion Design Brief, Building Designa
Part 5. Sustainability and Tradition Sustainability and Tradition
Part 6. On Christopher Alexander's Athena Award
Part 7. Urbanism in Late Stage Capitalism Post Truth Architecture in the Age of Trump, Building Designa Finally Some Smart Thinking About Garden Cities, Building Designa Garden Towns Need Some Garden City Thinking to Succeed, Building Designa Here's the Detail That's Missing from All the Manifestos, Building Designa Letter to Edward Glaeser in Response to Two Green Visions: the Prince and the Mayor,a in Triumph of the City Can Smart Urban Design Tackle the Rise of Nationalism? Building Designa 2011 Founders Forum on the New Urbanism at Seaside, Floridaa, Contribution to an Unpublished Book Architects are Critical to Adapting our Cities to Climate Change, Building Designa You've Got to Hand it to Post-Modernism, Building Designa
Part 8. Lean Urbanism: Making Small Possible A Lean Urbanism for England: Making Small Possible and Localism Real, LeanUrbanism.org Pink Zones Can Lighten Planning Red Tape, Building Designa Big Ideas Don't Often Produce Great Architecture, Building Designa Riding the Railroad to Revival, Building Designa Urban Recycling and Doubling Up: How Cities Really Respond to Growth, Building Designa How to Diversify Housing Delivery with Some Help from Architects, Building Designa Seeing Empty Homes as an Asset, Not a Liability, Building Designa
Part 9. About London London's Tall Buildings Bloopers, Building Designa A Towering Mess that the Government has the Power'But not the Will'to Address, Building Designa Just Because the Powell & Moya Site is Available doesn't mean it's the right place for a Concert Hall, Building Designa Old Street Will Need More than Money, Building Designa We Need Real Homes, not Ivory Towers, Building Designa Bigging up Battersea: A Progress Report, Building Designa Are We Serious About Estate Regeneration?, Building Designa
London's Housing Problems are Beyond the Power of Market Forces to Solve, Building Designa
Part 10. From Place to Place A Greener, More Pleasant Vision for Travel and Transport, The Ecologist Why We Can't Afford to Miss the Train, Building Designa Beauty isn't a Dirty Word, Building Designa Highway Capital and Economic Productivity, Reconnecting America Testimony before US Senate Commerce Committee in Air and Rail, 2003, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, Amtrak Sprawl: The Automobile and Affording the American Dream, in Sustainable Planet, by Juliet Schor and Betsy Taylor Why We Need to Get Beyond the Automated Highway System, Presentation to the National Automated Highway System Assessment Committee, National Academy of Sciences Thinking Like a System: Operationalizing Sustainability Through Transportation Technologies, ITS World Congress
About the Author
"Hank shows a rare sensibility within his profession: He has obviously been much moved by beauty. In these essays, he has contributed to the emerging belief that there are certain aesthetic constants across culture, time, and class, and that these can be objectively apprehended and taught."
