HCC Winter 2008: Week 9
Julia Reinhard Lupton
jrlupton@uci.edu
As you read this book, keep in mind that it was first published in 1961. What in your mind remains relevant, accurate, or provocative in Jacobs’ book? What in her writing feels dated, limited, or off target? How might her way of posing questions (and answering them) be useful to you in posing (and answering) your own questions? What sorts of questions might Jacobs help you ask?
introduction (pp. 3-25)
1. At what group of professionals is Jane Jacobs taking aim in this book? (p. 3)
2. What is the “one principle” that emerges from Jacobs’ “adventuring in the real world” of American cities? (pp. 13-14)
3. Why don’t the inhabitants of the
4. Distinguish the following types of modern city:
> “Garden City” (pp. 17-19)
> the “
> “the City Beautiful” (pp. 24-25)
The end results of these different cities may look very different. According to JJ, what do they all have in common?
chapter two: the uses of sidewalks: safety (pp. 29-34; 50-54)
5. According to JJ, what is the essential difference between a city and a town? (p. 30)
6. How does JJ use the image of the “intricate sidewalk ballet” to organize
her account of a typical day on
chapter three: the uses of sidewalks: contact (pp. 58-65)
7. What is the difference between “privacy” and “togetherness”? Why is one an attribute of city life, and the other not?
chapter four: the uses of sidewalks: assimilating children (pp. 84-88 )
8. What is the attitude of “recreation experts” towards children who play on sidewalks? What is the judgment of JJ?
chapter five: the uses of neighborhood parks (pp. 89-111)
9. What conventional idea about parks does JJ want to “turn around” in this chapter? (p. 89)
10. Explain JJ’s statement, “Parks are not automatically anything.” (p. 92)
11. What does JJ mean when she says that you can “neither lie to a neighborhood park, nor reason with it”? What would be an example of lying to a park? What would be an example of reasoning with a park? (p. 101)
12. What according to JJ are the four features of good park design? Is good design enough to make a park successful? (p. 103-106)
discussion questions
1) Explain the title of the book.
2) Describe a (or the) neighborhood where you grew up. Does it more closely resemble what Jacobs calls a “great city,” a “garden city,” a “radiant city,” a “city beautiful,” or something else entirely? To what extent is Jacobs’ analysis helpful to you in understanding the ideas behind this environment? To what extent is her account not helpful? Why?
2) sidewalk inventories: Make a list of all the sidewalks that you use in the course of a day. To what extent does each of these sidewalks support safety? Contact? The life of children?
OR
Describe the role that sidewalks played in your childhood. What kinds of activities were you likely to do on sidewalks? Which ones? At what age? Did you play out front? Walk to school? Hang out on sidewalks? Skateboard? Compare the role of parks and sidewalks during your childhood.
3) Analyze Aldrich Park using Jane Jacob’s chapter on parks as a guide. Is
4) making connections: Jacobs
and the Bauhaus
What would Jacobs think about Bruno Taut’s Horse Shoe
Estate? Gropius and Hannes Meyer’s Törten Working-Class
Housing Estate?
Review Törten at:
(http://www.humanities.uci.edu/%7Ermoeller/HCC_Lectures/Toerten_Gallery.html)
Review Taut at:
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/%7Ermoeller/HCC_Lectures/RGM_Lecture3.html\
Illustrated Jane: some links
Virtual Tours of NYC parks (cleaned up and pretty)
Greenwich Village (Jane’s neighborhood)
Contemporary urban photography
http://www.linkism.com/photography/photographers/street-urban.htm