Jane Jacobs
Writer and urbanist (1916 to 2006) whose The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) attacked the city planning of her day and argued for dense, mixed, walkable neighbourhoods.
Jane Jacobs did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsCities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsOld ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsUnder the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsDull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsA city cannot be a work of art.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsStreets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsThe trust of a city street is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsCities are an immense laboratory of trial and error, failure and success, in city building and city design.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Our reading
Treating a city as an architectural problem to be ordered like art substitutes art for life
Their wordsTo approach a city, or even a city neighborhood, as if it were a larger architectural problem, capable of being given order by converting it into a disciplined work of art, is to make the mistake of attempting to substitute art for life.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book
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Their wordsA well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.
↗The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)archive.org All 10 from this book