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A COUNTRY
OF CITIES
A MANIFESTO FOR AN URBAN AMERICA

VISHAAN
CHAKRABARTI
FOREWORD BY NORMAN FOSTER
ILLUSTRATIONS BY SHoP ARCHITECTS
 In A Country of Cities, author Vishaan Chakrabarti
argues that well-designed cities are the key
to solving America’s great national challenges:
economic stagnation, environmental degradation,
rising public health costs, and decreasing social
mobility. Chakrabarti reveals how, if we could
better invest the hundreds ofbillions of tax dollars
we currently spend each year on sprawl, our cities
could unleash a new era of progressive and pros-
perous stewardship of our nation and our planet.
In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings.us a
wealth of information about cities, suburbs, and
exurbs, looking at how they developed across the
United States and their respective roles in prosperity
and globalization, sustainability and resilience,
and heath and joy.
Counter to popular belief, American cities
today are growing faster than their suburban
counterparts for the first time since the 1920s.
Chakrabarti shows us how we can harness this
trend by intelligently increasing the density of our
cities while building the transit systems, schools,
parks, affordable housing, and other infrastructure
needed to create the economic opportunities,
sustainable environment, and public happiness
that are truly within our reach.
In this call for a nation that embraces the
American Dream of opportunity rather than an
“American Scheme” of consumption, the author
illuminates his argument with one hundred illus-
trations that visualize important statistics on issues
as disparate as the success and joy associated with
city life, the health impacts of ever-lengthening
automobile commutes, and government subsidies
that encourage us to create sprawl rather than
build tall. The book closes with an eloquent man-
ifesto that rallies us to build a “Country of Cities,”
to turn a country of highways, houses, and hedges
intoa country of trains, towers, and trees.
arrest)
atch ere
eu
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https ://archive.org/details/countryofcitiesm0000chak
A COUNTRY
OF CITIES
For my parents,

Who came from humble villages

And immersed me in the world’s cities.

May they find peace on this, their final voyage.

You may ask yourself, what is that beautiful house?
You may ask yourself, where does that highway go to?
You may ask yourself, am I right, am I wrong?
You may say to yourself, my god, what have I done?

“ONCE IN ALIFETIME,” TALKING HEADS

A COUNTRY
OF CITIES:
A MANIFESTO
FOR AN URBAN
AMERICA
VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI
Foreword by Norman Foster
Illustrations by SHoP Architects

Metropolis Books
CONTENTS

11 FOREWORD, NORMAN FOSTER

ie ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A COUNTRY OF COUNTRIES:
OF HIGHWAYS, HOUSES, AND HEDGES

WHY CITIES ARE GOOD

52 1 Cities, Prosperity, and Globalization

74 2 Cities, Sustainability, and Resilience
102 3 Cities, Health, and Joy

HOW TO BUILD GOOD CITIES

126 4 Building Hyperdensity and Civic Delight

154 5 Building an Infrastructure of Opportunity
186 6 Building the Equitable City

214 A COUNTRY OF CITIES:

OF TRAINS, TOWERS, AND TREES

ee A COUNTRY OF CITIES: THE MANIFESTO

228 AUTHOR'S NOTE

230 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATION SOURCES

246 INDEX
 FOREWORD
Norman Foster

Tam in Manhattan. I'm sitting in my eighth-floor apartment, drawing and

looking out across Central Park. The phone rings—it’s Vishaan. “I have
something I want to show you,’ he says. “Let’s have a coffee.” Fifteen minutes
later I take the elevator and then walk a couple of blocks to Madison Avenue.
Were meeting at Sant Ambroeus—a neighborhood café and a perfect place
to get together with friends. Vishaan is waiting for me. He’s walked his
son to school and taken the subway up from Union Square, where he lives.
We order and Vishaan hands me a draft copy of this book. He asks if I will
contribute a foreword. I know of his great commitment to the subject as an
academic, with a body of work in the public realm as well as private practice,
and so of course I immediately agree.
Now imagine if that scene had been played out in Detroit or Los Angeles,
or any other sprawling American metropolis. We would both have jumped
in our cars and headed for the freeway. One of us would doubtless have
gotten stuck in traffic. Instead offifteen minutes, it would have taken us an
hour, with all the attendant frustrations.
One of the beauties of Manhattan is that it is a compact, dense, walkable
city. It has thriving neighborhoods with a strong sense of community; it mixes
living and working and has a messy vitality; it has an incredible park, as well
as other smaller green spaces, and an extraordinary range of cultural and
civic amenities close at hand; it has an excellent public transportation system;
car ownership is very low; and it is natural to walk or take the subway, which
is faster than driving.
It sounds attractive, doesn’t it? So why are all cities not like that?
The fact is that before the age of the automobile, most cities followed that
pattern—the polar opposite of the relatively new car-dependent, zoned, and
suburban metropolis one finds across much ofthe world today. Of course,
we cannot turn back the clock, but we can set out development strategies
to ensure that existing cities adapt to become more sustainable; and we can
propose new urban models for the future, which learn from the best of the
past. It has been said that if you wish to look far into the future, then you
should first look far back in time.
Across the globe, an increasing proportion of the population is becoming
urbanized. Currently, more than half of the world’s population lives in towns

11 Foreword
and cities. By 2030, that proportion will have risen to two thirds. One result
of this global population shift is the growth of megacities of unprecedented
size. Significantly, the top six are all on the Pacific Rim, which the World
Bank predicts will be the fastest-growing region in the world over the next
five years. Look at that list of megacities and the immediate reaction is to
note its diversity. Study it more closely, however, and you discover that cities
around the world have common problems and can learn from one another.
We know that cities that sprawl are wasteful in terms of energy, land,
and other resources. To put this into perspective, in industrialized societies,
buildings and the transport of people and goods between them account for
70 percent of the total energy expended. Naturally, if you increase urban
densities, one result will be shorter journeys, with fuel savings and carbon
reductions. Compare Manhattan with Detroit and you find that the average
Manhattan resident uses less than one fifth the amount of gasoline consumed
by a Detroit citizen and a third ofthe electricity, even though the two cities
have comparable climates. Other benefits also follow. For instance, recent
data from the U.S. suggests that economic growth and job creation are
stronger in city centers and poverty is rising faster in the suburbs. There
is also a link between climbing gasoline prices and foreclosure rates in
suburban communities.
Critics may denigrate such advocacy with the myth that higher urban
densities lead to something poorer—literally and also in terms of quality
of life. Examine the evidence, however, and you find the opposite is true.
Macau and Monaco, for example, are among the densest communities
on earth, yet their roots lie at opposite ends of the economic spectrum.
Medium-density European cities such as Berlin, Copenhagen, and London
typically offer a desirable lifestyle with higher property values. In most cases,
proximity to a park or garden square is a major factor. Mayfair and Belgravia
in London, for instance, pair with Hyde Park, just as the Upper East and
West Sides of Manhattan relate to Central Park. The same applies in less
affluent parts of cities. For me, the most desirable parts of Brooklyn, in New
York, are on the borders of Prospect Park; and it is interesting to note that
in the recent competition for a cultural district in West Kowloon, the people
of Hong Kong voted for the solution that featured a new waterfront park.

12 A Country of Cities
 Sustainability requires us to think holistically, and this is as true ofa
city’s infrastructure—the “urban glue” that holds the city together—as it is
of its architecture. I would go further and argue that the quality of a city’s
infrastructure impacts the quality of life more directly than does the quality
of its individual buildings. Asian cities have been at the forefront in renewing
their transportation infrastructure. Hong Kong, for instance, decided in the
1960s to invest in a mass-transit railway system. Today, that network is so
comprehensive that it accounts for the majority of journeys—more than
four million trips every weekday. Departure for the airport begins in the city
center, when you board a luxurious train—the equivalent of the first-class
cabin in a wide-body jet.
It is self-evident that if we are to create sustainable urban communities—
not just in America, but across the globe—we have to take a number of
essential steps. We have to build to higher densities in order to conserve land
and reduce energy use; we must create neighborhoods that combine work-
places with housing, and where transport connections, schools, parks, and
other amenities are all within walking or cycling distance. Most important,
we have to create inspirational urban environments where people want to live.
The contribution that design can make in this regard is profound and
far-reaching. My own experience of numerous cities across six continents
bears this out. But architects and planners can only ever be advocates.
That is why A Country ofCities should be essential reading—not just for
members of the many related professions engaged in urban design, but also
for those in local and central government departments who shape planning
policies and the politicians who enact them. Many ofthe environmental
problems we face today are exacerbated by inappropriate policy decisions
that were made in the past, often rooted in a lack of knowledge. Let us learn
from those misjudgments and, with greater hindsight, pursue sustainable
urban strategies for the future. With this book, Vishaan Chakrabarti shows
us the way forward.

13 Foreword
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

All acknowledgments for this effort are eclipsed by the gratitude I have for
my beloved wife, Maria Alataris, who through her support and encouragement
gave me the confidence to believe I could write this book. Our son, Evan,
ten, and our daughter, Avia, a young four, have stood by with grace (well,
most of the time) as I missed this event or that game in order to juggle the
demands of Columbia, SHoP, and the voracious appetite of this project,
and for them I can only wish that they gain in the trade-off an appreciation
for the analog virtues of books and cities in their increasingly digital worlds.
And, finally, on the family front, I must thank their Energizer Bunny of a
grandmother, Anna Alataris, who stayed with us through most of the summer
of 2012 in large measure to give me the space to write.
Our family has now been extended to include my invaluable research
associate, apprentice, and sidekick, Omar Toro-Vaca. A former student
turned colleague, Omar has doggedly scrutinized every page of this book
with me, confirming the verity of its passages and graphics, and has lifted
my spirits with a laugh or a new brand oftequila whenever the gravity of
the subject matter ensnared me. It is rare to encounter in someone so young
such emotional intelligence, keen judgment, broad sense ofsocial justice,
and wide-ranging professional capability. When Omar is our mayor, governor,
or senator, I hope he has the occasional moment for his old professor.
Working alongside Omar has been one of our employees at SHoP
and also a former student, the immensely talented and prolific Ryan Lovett.
Ryan tirelessly devoted himselfto the graphic content of this volume, but
instilled within each diagram much more than illustrative power. With
strong analytical abilities to match his visual skills, Ryan has brought clarity
to complex issues ranging from economics to environment and transportation
to taxes. Beyond the data, however, readers will encounter images that verge
on art. A poignant example of today’s emerging hybrid professional, Ryan
is a Swiss Army knife of the highest caliber. Similarly, the early stages of
the book research would not have been possible without the efforts of Eli
Ackerman, a former student whose fierce political convictions will serve him
and all of us well.
To Norman Foster, one ofthe greatest living architects in the world,
I owe a tremendous debt for contributing the foreword to this volume.

15 Acknowledgments
For over a decade, Norman has been a gracious friend, mentor, and role
model in his tireless pursuit of design excellence and his abiding dedication to
the global city and its sustainability. Through the lens of his work worldwide,
I can contemplate no better figure to advise this nation as it seeks to urbanize.
None of our team’s efforts would have been possible without the generous
support of my fabulous partners at SHoP Architects: Gregg Pasquarelli,
Kim Holden, Jon Mallie, and Bill, Chris, and Corie Sharples. From the
outset, they did not flinch about embracing this book and its content, and
without question both SHoP’s architecture and analytical diagrams have
served as tremendous personal inspiration. Ours is a firm dedicated not
only to cities but also to the transformation of suburban typologies to urban
form, and as such A Country of Cities adheres remarkably well to our core
philosophy of urban practice whether we are designing an arena, a museum,
a watertront, a master plan, an office tower, or high-density affordable housing.
Similarly, my colleagues at Columbia University have been highly
supportive, starting with the dean of the Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Mark Wigley, who first advised me
to approach this project as a manifesto. In addition to Mark’s continuous
support, many GSAPP faculty have influenced my thinking through their
work and camaraderie, particularly Gwendolyn Wright, Laurie Hawkinson,
Galia Solomonoff, Michael Bell, and Reinhold Martin. Finally, my team
at Columbia has been loyal through the chaos of it all, for which I thank
Jessica Stockton, Jesse Keenan, Emily Griffen, and the indefatigable
Linda LaBella.
I began A Country of Cities as a blog for the Architectural League
of New York’s groundbreaking website, Urban Omnibus. For this initial
chance and inspiration, I must thank the League’s executive director,
Rosalie Genevro, Omnibus editor Cassim Shepard, and managing editor
Varick Shute, as well as the many readers who commented, argued,
disagreed, and spurred me on. Cassim in particular pushed me to write
more, and for this I am in his debt. It is through his urging, and a well-
timed introduction from Pamela Puchalski, that I met my publisher and
friend, Diana Murphy of Metropolis Books. Few publishers could dojustice
to a project so simultaneously driven by text and graphics, but Diana and

16 A Country of Cities
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