The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning / Edition 2

by John Sewell, Jane Jacobs

Overview

Critics have long voiced concerns about the wisdom of living in cities and the effects of city life on physical and mental health. For a century, planners have tried to meet these issues. John Sewell traces changes in urban planning, from the pre-Depression garden cities to postwar modernism and a revival of interest in the streetscape grid.

In this far-ranging review, Sewell recounts the arrival of modern city planning with its emphasis on lower densities, limited access streets, segregated uses, and considerable green space. He makes Toronto a case history, with its pioneering suburban development in Don Mills and its other planned communities, including Regent Park, St Jamestown, Thorncrest Village, and Bramalea.

The heyday of the modern planning movement was in the 1940s to the 1960s, and the Don Mills concept was repeated in spirit and in style across Canada. Eventually, strong public reaction brought modern planning almost to a halt within the city of Toronto. The battles centred on saving the Old City Hall and stopping the Spadina Expressway. Sewell concludes that although the modernist approach remains ascendant in the suburbs, the City of Toronto has begun to replace it with alternatives that work.

This is a reflective but vigorous statement by a committed urban reformer. Few Canadians are better suited to point the way towards city planning for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802074096
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	09/08/1993
Series:	Heritage
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Sewell is a former city councillor and mayor of Toronto, has been a columnist for The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, and Eye Weekly, and was the founder of Citizens for Local Democracy. Jane Jacobs was an American-Canadian activist, author, and journalist.

Editorial Reviews

Sewell explains how Toronto was subjected to the same fraudulent urban development theories and practices as other North American cities, and how it has survived them to become a model for sane growth. He traces the ideals to their origin in the 19th century, the epidemic of modern planning after World War II, its rejection, the creation of alternatives, and the lingering problem of the suburbs. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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