For those that I didn't meet during my visit and for any fellow incoming students reading this, I'd just like to say, "what up?" My name is Dan Begert, I'm 26, and I did my undergrad at Kansas in environmental studies. I've been working as a GIS tech for the last 2 1/2 years in State College, PA, but am looking forward to getting my grad school on this fall.
My ulterior motive for this post was to see if any of the second-years had advice for incoming students. I've already got my living situation squared away, but thought that maybe you could recommend some books for someone who's only had one semester of urban planning classes so far. I've read Christopher Alexander, Kevin Lynch, and Jane Jacobs and am starting Richard Florida's "Cities and the Creative Class," but if you remember what textbooks were used for UP 504, 508 and 509 last year I wouldn't mind getting a head start on those, too.
I'm not much of a Facebooker, but I do have a page so if anybody wants to look me up there feel free. Also, my email is begert.dan@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you and have a nice summer,
Dan
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"You're the only ones who think planning is interesting" - Ed Feser
Posts
7 comments:
Hey Dan! Welcome to the MUP program! I hope your transition to Champaign-Urbana goes smoothly. To be honest, I'm not much of a textbook-reader, but more of an article-reader because I find them to be more practical and less geared toward academia. You are probably already aware of planetizen.com, but I RSS their newsfeed and subscribe to their podcasts on iTunes. Both are great ways to find out what's new in the planning world without spending an excess amount of time reading through stuff.
A couple of books I did really enjoy, though, are:
The Sustainable Urban Development Reader by Stephen Wheeler and Timothy Beatley
Sustainable Urbanism by Douglas Farr (founder of Farr Associates in Chicago)
Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design by Donald Watson
I also think the SmartCode guide (download at http://smartcodecentral.com/docs/3000-BookletSC-pdf.zip) is awesome and good to be familiar with, if you're interested in urban design.
Dan,
I'd like to second Rachel's welcome to the program. You will have a great time and learn a lot at UIUC.
Books I highly recommend to anyone are Freakanomics, Tipping Point, Outliers, and Hot, Flat and Crowded. Planning is a lot about being to explain your ideas to others, and these books are filled with good examples of how to do that, and lots of general knowledge relevant to planners.
Welcome, Dan!
On the right hand side of the blog there are a bunch of articles that a couple of folks in the program share from their google reader feed. Lots of those blogs are good places to keep up on some current goings on. Let me know if you (or anyone else reading this post) want to share.
One that we didn't read in class but is a good is "American Apartheid" by Massey and Denton. It's from the 90's but is extremely relevant when you're looking at issues in many central cities.
First and foremost: enjoy your summer! You'll be inundated with planning soon enough, so ENJOY FICTION WHILE YOU STILL CAN!! ;)
I second jane's closing comment.
Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler - enjoyable and illuminating perspective on American culture and built environment, fairly scathing. You may have some readings from this in Urban Hist and Theory, but I recommend the whole book.
P.S. now I have a bunch of suggestions for books to read...thanks, cohort :-P
It seems like every class I've ever been in mentions Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and Jane Jacob's "Death and Life of Great American Cities" but I have yet to read them...so those would be great.
If you want to fuel your fire, read something by Randall O'Toole. He hates planning! ("The Vanishing Automobile and Other Myths" is a hearty one) He will make you re-assess everything you've accepted anecdotally. Maybe you should wait a year before you dive into it.
I really like Jared Dimond, "Collapse" and Malcolm Gladwell "The Tipping Point," "Blink," and "Outliers" (to echo Marissa). They're not planners, but they write some kick-ass books that I think about all the time.
Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" inspired me personally. It's about the food industry and, indirectly, land use.
Hi Dan,
Welcome from another incoming first year! I made it to C-U already but I don't have much time to follow your high standard or Jane's advice to read fiction. I'm taking micro-economics on-line. Uff da (as we say in MN).
I'm an older student so come with some breadth of experience, but I freak out when I think of GIS! I left architecture just as CADD was replacing the drafting I grew up with. What can you - and others - recommend for me to ease into ARC GIS before classes start?
Myles
Post a Comment