Seattle – 3: “Urbanism Without Effort”

I’ve been neglectful at not featuring this book by Seattleite Chuck Wolfe.  It’s not solely about Seattle, but Urbanism Without Effort: Reconnecting with First Principles of the City finds inspiration there.

Here’s Kaid Benfield’s review in Better! Cities & Towns:

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… while conscious city planning can  be good, the instinctive organization of city life can be even better,  and the world is full of examples if we look for them.  Chuck admonishes  us to look beneath the surface at these historical examples, and some  contemporary ones, too, and avoid “merely catchy ideas, plucked from a  catalog of trendy, oversubscribed options.” …

The book is full of examples and illustrations, including lots of Chuck’s excellent photography (he is one of the two or three best built-environment photographers I  know), much of it taken from his extensive travels.  He has a gifted eye  for extracting the extraordinary and meaningful from the seemingly ordinary,  and providing just enough translation so that our reaction to evocative  images is informed and guided, but not so much that we aren’t allowed  to experience the images directly.

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