City and Regional Planning provides a clearly written and lavishly illustrated overview of the theory and practice of city and regional planning. With material on globalization and the world city system, and with examples from a number of countries, the book has been written to meet the needs of readers worldwide who seek an overview of city and regional planning.
Chapters cover the history of cities and city and regional planning, urban design and placemaking, comprehensive plans, planning politics and plan implementation, planning visions, and environmental, transportation, and housing planning. The book pays special attention to diversity, social justice, and collaborative planning. Topics include current practice in resilience, transit-oriented development, complexity in planning, spatial equity, globalization, and advances in planning methods.
It is aimed at U.S. graduate and undergraduate city and regional planning, geography, urban design, urban studies, civil engineering, and other students and practitioners. It includes extensive material on current practice in planning for climate change. Each chapter includes a case study, a biography of an important planner, lists of concepts and important people, and a list of books, articles, videos, and other suggestions for further learning.
1. The Art and Science of City and Regional Planning Chapter 2. The Evolution of Cities, and City and Regional Planning 1607 - 1933 3. Urban Design and Placemaking 4. The Politics of City and Regional Planning 5. Planning Theory 6. Visions 7. Comprehensive (General) Plans 8. Implementing Plans 9. Community Planning, Citizen Participation and Social Justice 10. Regional and National Planning 11. Planning for an Urban Planet 12. The Evolution of Cities, and City and Regional Planning 1933 – Present 13. Environmental Planning 14. Transportation Planning 15. Housing Planning and Policy 16. Urban Development and Revitalization 17. Climate Change and Energy Planning
Biography
Richard LeGates is Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning at San Francisco State University where he taught for 40 years before retiring in 2010. He was a Summit Professor of Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai from 2015 to 2017. He has a joint Master’s of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) degree and Doctor of Laws degree (JD) from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the California Bar.
Professor LeGates has also taught city and regional planning at the University of California Berkeley, Renmin University of China, The American University of Sharjah, and Charles University.
He is the co-editor of The City Reader, now in its seventh edition (Routledge, 2020), and books and articles on spatial analysis, planning history, regionalism, housing policy, planning law, and planning in China.
Professor LeGates has received research support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the California Legislature, the California State Department of Housing and Community Development, the San Francisco Foundation, the Brookings Institution, the Higher Education Funding Council of England, and the Ford Foundation. In 2015 he was a Writer in Residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Villa Serbelloni in Como, Italy.
"Richard Le Gates has written the most complete and comprehensive survey of city and regional planning by any author in the past twenty years. It will be the standard for the coming decades." Michael Teitz, Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, USA
"LeGates has perfectly captured city and regional planning in its many applications from local to global and offers an excellent portrait of the international scope of urbanization from the past to the present." Eugenie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research & Education, University of Pennsylvania, USA
"This book is a refreshing, inclusionary, beautifully illustrated and readable overview of a complex profession. It pays special attention to important issues of social inequality and justice." June Thomas, Professor Emerita of Urban Planning, University of Michigan, USA
"Eminent planning scholar Richard LeGates presents a beautifully crafted story of city and regional planning that will fascinate planning students worldwide. Full of masterly insights, this book is a planners’ must-read." Ben Davy, Professor of Land Policy, Land Management and Municipal Geoinformation, Technical University of Dortmund (retired), Germany, 2017–2021 President of the Association of European Schools of Planning
"This wide-ranging volume offers undergraduate and graduate students an overview that is U.S.-focused but globally-engaged; historically-grounded yet attuned to recent exemplary practice; concentrated on places, projects, policies and techniques, yet aware of human agency." Lawrence Vale, Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
"I can think of no better way to learn about the state of the art of designing and planning cities than Richard LeGates’s City and Regional Planning textbook. It explains concisely the techniques planners use in creating and improving the quality of places, and offers avenues for further study to those who wish to pursue subjects in greater depth." Gary Hack, Professor Emeritus of Urban Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania, USA
"City and Regional Planning is a very timely refreshing text on solving complex contemporary urban challenges including climate change. LeGates’s textbook will appeal to planners in Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the U.S. and other countries." Professor Barbara Norman, Chair and Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Canberra, Australia
"LeGates' broad overview of key planning concepts is readily accessible and engaging, laying the groundwork for both an informed planner and thoughtful citizen." Margaret Wilder, Executive Director, Urban Affairs Association
"The editor of seven editions of The City Reader, Richard LeGates has long been a leader in charting the domain of planning knowledge. In City and Regional Planning LeGates thoughtfully articulates the history and current practice of urban planning in accessible language aiming to engage a new generation of planners." Ann Forsyth, Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard University, USA
"This sweeping introduction to American urban planning by one of the field’s most perceptive observers does a wonderful job of highlighting key issues and debates. The up-to-date material on sustainable urban development and climate action planning is a welcome addition." Steven Wheeler, Professor of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, USA
"Richard LeGates investigates the complete history of city and regional planning thoroughly in this milestone encyclopedic book. It will be a source of inspiration for many generations of planners." Fulong Wu, Bartlett Professor of Planning, University College London, UK
"City and Regional Planning is a veritable almanac of American planning from 1607 to the present, covering landmarks in styles, approaches, theories, visions, visionaries, scholars and scholarship and much more. LeGates’s wide experience as an international and interdisciplinary writer, teacher and practitioner, lends authority at every turn. The reader has the sense of being taken on an epic tour through a vast and rather overwhelming city by someone who sees significance in each of its buildings and spaces, and uses their stories to explain how the city started and what may become of it. Superb." Chris Webster, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Chair Professor (Urban Planning and Development Economics), The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
"This long overdue textbook is a gift for planning students, educators, and scholars in Australia, China, and other countries—developed or developing. For the first time, it places urban planning and design in a global context and makes planning theory and practice accessible worldwide. The exhaustive and up-to-date references are a wonderful resource." Richard Hu, Professor of Urban Planning and Design & Director, Globalization and Cities Research Program, University of Canberra, Australia
"LeGates integrates planning scholarship and practice better than any previous text, across the full range of planning topics and issues. It is a major step forward in introducing the field." Michael Hibbard, Professor Emeritus, Planning, Public Policy & Management, University of Oregon, USA
"An energetic, fact-filled overview of contemporary challenges combined with a wide-ranging survey of planning past and present. LeGates’s accessible text reinforces crucial interconnections with broader social imperatives of sustainability, equity and respect." Robert Freestone, Professor of Planning, University of New South Wales, Australia
"Professor LeGates’s City and Regional Planning is a masterpiece. Its intellectual depth and clear explanations will make it an indispensable reference for academics in China and everywhere in the Global South as well as the Global North." Qin Bo, Professor of Urban Planning and Management, Renmin University of China, China
"This book is a comprehensive panorama of city and regional planning by a highly qualified author with a longstanding track record of seminal collections in urban studies." Ali Madanipour, Professor of Urban Design and Director of the Global Urban Research Unit (GURU) at Newcastle University, UK
"City and Regional Planning covers all the concepts and knowledge an urban planning student needs to know. Understanding how urban planning has evolved in the United States will provide students in other parts of the world a framework to understand the evolution of urban planning concepts and systems in their own city." Anthony Yeh, Chair Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, University of Hong Kong, Founding Secretary General of the Asian Planning Schools Association
"Professor LeGates has produced a remarkably readable, detailed, and useful textbook for everyone studying urban planning, urban design, and all related academic fields. With admirable clarity and precision, he captures the full scope of how planning cities and urban regions guides the on-going development of human civilization. It is a magisterial contribution to our understanding of the history, theory, and best practices of an enormously consequential profession." Frederic Stout, Lecturer in Urban Studies, Program on Urban Studies
"City and Regional Planning provides an excellent introduction to the rapidly evolving field of city and regional planning. Its rich collection of international examples provides readers current planning ideas and paradigms, new roles for planners and communities, and the diversity of specialized programs and practices in internationally unique contexts." Sun Sheng Han, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia
"An essential starting-point for anyone wanting to understand the American planning system, including the history and theory behind why we plan, and the difficult planning challenges facing communities today. LeGates’ textbook provides impressive depth and detail on the key issues facing cities today. I can’t think of another single volume that so effectively and fully delivers what planners need to know." Timothy Beatley, Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, School of Architecture, University of Virginia, USA
"This text addresses the foundations of city and regional problems brilliantly, but also what planning should be, which is the art and science of affecting change." Ivis Garcia, Assistant Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, USA
"Our views of city planning originate from the observations and the writings of the early pioneers such as Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford. LeGates does a magnificent job in setting the contemporary development of city and regional planning with respect to this history. City and Regional Planning is built around the way urbanists and planners have developed their science and art in response to the evolution of cities. It is a wonderful description of the challenges facing society in dealing with contemporary problems of urbanism." Michael Batty, Chair, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, UK
"Richard LeGates’s textbook synthesizes an entire urban and regional planning curriculum maintaining a thoughtful theoretical and social justice perspective that elevates it into a platform for many scholarly debates. A true magnum opus." Rachelle Alterman, Professor Emerita of Planning and Law, Tecknion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
"LeGates captures the robust scope of urban planning from urban sprawl to climate change. Biographical briefs punctuate the narrative with exemplary tales showing how individual contributions matter. Passionate artistry and cool analysis combine to make good plans for places." Charles Hoch, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
"This comprehensive journey through the history and contemporary practices of city and regional planning offers insights for us all. A must read for students of planning worldwide." Matthew Carmona, Professor of Planning and Urban Design, The Bartlett School, UK
"This book is more than a 'must read' for anyone who wants to see the enormous diversity of the planning discipline presented in its context. It tells the story with ease, elegantly drawing its path dependence and presenting the fine balance between all the issues that matter, including complexity, non-linearity and transformation, the latest advances in the field." Gert de Roo, Professor of Spatial Planning, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
"City and Regional Planning will be of interest to both students and practitioners of urban and regional planning, and to the general public who want to understand how planning impacts their lives and communities. It will be of interest to people outside of the USA who want to understand the American planning system." Penny Gurstein, Professor of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada
"In this introductory textbook, Richard LeGates incorporates all of the genre's desired qualities: extensive coverage of the field, general concepts accompanied by concrete examples and illustrations, easy-to-read and up-to-date text, and succinct descriptions of substantive interests and procedural concerns. This book is a welcoming introduction for those considering a career in city and regional planning." Robert A. Beauregard, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University, USA
"A comprehensive view of what city and regional planners do in that part of the world (US) which has influenced planning internationally, and a source for reflection for southern planners." Vanessa Watson, Professor of City Planning, University of Cape Town, South Africa
"The City Reader now for the first time provides an extensive integration of the work of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Planner of Color Interest Group on a range of challenges facing workplaces, institutions and communities, racial equity-based policy solutions, and culturally competent community planning." April Jackson, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
"City and Regional Planning is an excellent addition to the literature on city and regional planning theory and practice in the United States. It provides a solid basis for scholars and planners in Canada and other countries who wish to undertake a comparative analysis to other planning systems." David Amborski, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Ryerson University, Canada
