Resources for teachers and students

Here you can find some useful resources for exploring themes in urban planning, cities, sustainable planning, transportation, and development.

Curriculum guides

• You can find this list and additional resources at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's website >
• Adventures in Architecture: An Activity-Based Science Curriculum, Project Adventure , by Libby Palmer et al. Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1999.
• Amazing Hands-On Map Activities by Rose Forina. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2001.
• America's Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups that Built America by Dell Upton, ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.
• Architecture & Children Poster Set by Anne Taylor. Washington, D.C.: The American Institute of Architects and School Zone Institute, 1987.
• Architecture and Children: A Teachers Guide by The School Zone Institute. Seattle, WA: Architecture and Children Institute, 1991.
• Architecture and Engineering: An Illustrated Teacher's Manual on "Why Buildings Stand Up"by Mario Salvadori and Michael Tempel. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1983.
• Architecture in Education by Mary Abhau, ed. with Rolaine Copeland and Greta Greenberger. Philadelphia, PA: Foundation for Architecture, 1986. (Available from LBD:NY.)
• Architecture is Elementary: Visual Thinking Through Architectural Conceptsby Nathan B. Winters. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1986.
• Architexture: A Shelter Word by Sally J. Patton and Dianne Maxon. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press, 1989.
• Beginning Experiences in Architecture: A Guide for the Elementary School Teacher by George E. Trogler. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1972.
• Box City by Ginny Graves. Prairie Village, KS: Center for Understanding the Built Environment (CUBE), 2001.
• Building A Community by Julie Maurer. Newark, NJ: The New Jersey Historical Society, 1999.
• Building Connections: Enriching Learning Through the Power of Architecture and Design by Jan Hempel. Washington, D.C.: The American Architectural Foundation, 1999.
• Built Environment and Design Education for Children: 1991 by Mojdeh Baratloo and Jane Dodds. New York: New York State Council on the Arts, 1991.
• Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care by Roger Hart. London: Earthscan, 1997.
• The Community as Classroom: A Teacher's Manual by Frances Eberhart, ed. New York: The Historic Districts Press, 1996. (Available from LBD:NY.)
• Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation by David Driskell. London: Earthscan, 2002.
• D.I.Y: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.
• Design and Drawing: An Applied Approach by Richard L. Shadrin. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, 1992.
• Design and Technology, 5-12 by Pat Williams and David Jinks. London: Falmer Press, 1985.
• Design as a Catalyst for Learning by Meredith Davis et al. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997.
• Design Technology: Children's Engineering by Susan Dunn. London: Falmer Pr, 1989.
• Designing for Children: The Art of Graphic Design by Steven Heller and Steven Guarnaccia. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1994.
• Designing Playgrounds by Jan Ham. Menlo Park, California: Dale Seymour Publications, 1998.
• Draw! A Visual Approach to Thinking, Learning, and Communicating by Kurt Hanks and Larry Belliston. Crisp Publications, Inc., 1992.
• Exploratorium Guide to Scale and Structure : Activities for the Elementary Classroom by Barry Kluger-Bell. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishers, 1995.
• Historic Preservation Education Champaign, IL: Educational Concepts Group, 1980.
• How to See by George Nelson. (Available at www.dwr.com)
• How to Turn a Place Around, ed. Project for Public Spaces. by Project for Public Spaces. New York: Project for Public Spaces, Inc., 2000. (www.pps.org)
• Introducing Design: Technology Across the Curriculum by Tristram Shepard. UK: Nelson Thornes, Ltd., 1991.
• Learning to Look: Handbook for the Visual Arts by Joshua Taylor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
• Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education For the Elementary Years by David Sobel. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishers, 1949.
• MARA: Mathematics/Architecture Related Activities by The University of the State of New York. Albany: The State Education Dep't., Bureau of Curriculum Development, 1982. (available at www.emsc.nysed.gov)
• Our Man-Made Environment-Book Seven by The Group for Environmental Education, Philadelphia.
• Schoolyards to Skylines: Teaching with Chicago's Amazing Architecture by Jean Linsner and Jennifer Masengarb. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2002. (available at www.architecture.org)
• The Source Book 2, Learning by Design by Alan Sandler, editor. AIA Press, 1988.
• Structural Design Challenges: Design Technology Projects for Grades 3-8 by Jan Ham. Franklin, Massachusetts: Architectural Education Resource Center, 1996.
• Structures: Grades 5-8 by Bernie Zubrowski. White Plains, New York: Cuisenaire Company of America, Inc., 1993.
• Students, Structures, Spaces: Activities in the Built Environment by Aase Eriksen, and Marjorie Wintermute. Menlo Park, California: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1983.
• Teaching With Historic Places, A Curriculum Framework for Professional Training and Development of Teachers, Preservationists, and Museum and Site Interpreters by Charles S. White and Kathleen A. Hunter. Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic preservation, 1995. (www.nationaltrust.org)
• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.
• Transformations: Process and Theory: A Curriculum Guide to Creative Development, by Doreen G. Nelson. Santa Monica, CA: Center for City Building Educational Programs, 1984.
• Walk Around the Block by Ginny Graves. Prairie Village, Kansas: Center for Understanding the Built Environment (CUBE), 1992.
• What Style is It? A Guide to American Architecture by John C. Poppeliers. Wiley: revised edition, 2003.
• Why Design?: Activities And Projects from the National Building Museum by Anna Slafer and Kevin Cahill. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 1995.
• Youth Planning Charrettes: A Manual for Planners & Teachers by Bruce Race. Washington, D.C.: American Planning Association, 1998.

Sustainable planning, transportation and development

• Project for Public Spaces: www.pps.org - PPS is a nationally and internationally recognized urban design organization, especializing in planning and designing memorable places and spaces in urban areas.
  Also from PPS:
  Great streets - transportation and livable communities
  Great Public Spaces
  Better buildings, better places
• The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy: www.itdp.org
• The Citizen Planner
• The Pedestrian and Bicyle Information Center at www.bicyclinginfo.org
• Living Streets: www.livingstreets.org.uk - Organization focused on creating safe, vibrant and healthy streets for all.
• World Carfree Network: www.worldcarfree.net - Clearinghouse of information from around the world on how to revitalize towns and cities to create a sustainable future; offers resources for architects, planners, teachers/professors, students, decision-makers and engaged citizens.
• The New Rules Project - a comprehensive resource for policymakers, organizations and activists looking for innovative public policies enacted around the world: www.newrules.org
• The Congress for the New Urbanism: www.cnu.org

On planning and the history and condition of US cities

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities - by Jane Jacobs, Random House - first published in 1961, this book helped inform the movement that would eventually end the destructive practices of highway building and "urban renewal" in cities throughout the U.S.
• Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream - by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, North Point Press - a kind of sequel to Jane Jacobs's book, tackling some of the specific causes behind the continuing decline of our urban environment, from the role traffic projections and state standards play to the ways in which things can be improved.
• Crabgrass Frontier: the Suburbanization of the United States - by Kenneth T. Jackson, Oxford University Press - detailed history of housing and transportation policy in the U.S., includes in-depth examination of redlining and other discriminatory FHA and mortgage-industry policies.
• The Old Neighborhood - Ray Suarez, Simon & Schuster - examines the story of the changes affecting neighborhoods in the central cities.

Justice, injustice, discrimination and planning

• American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass - by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, Harvard University Press - gives a detailed assessment of the history, methods, and effects of racial segregation in the United States.
• Urban Planning and the African American Community - Edited by June Manning Thomas and Marsha Ritzdorf, Sage Publications - collection of academic papers focusing on the impacts of urban planning on African American communities, includes topics like exclusionary zoning, environmental racism, and the history of racial zoning in the early 20th Century.
• Our Town - Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia - David Kirp, John Dwyer, and Larry Rosenthal, Rutgers University Press - the story of the Mount Laurel legal cases that opened up New Jersey's suburbs to affordable housing.
• Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States - Edward Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder, Brookings Institution Press - examines the phenomenom of gated communities, which are the fastest-growing type of suburban development and are expressly designed to keep out 'undesirables' by building walls and gatehouses around themselves.
• Achieving Racial Justice: What's Sprawl Got To Do With It? - john powell - Professor powell, of the Institute on Race and Poverty, addresses the racial aspects of urban sprawl. More from the Institute on Race and Poverty >
• The Color of Money - a series of articles documenting racial discrimination in mortgage lending. These articles, the result of the largest study of mortgage data in U.S. history, discovered clear and consistent patterns of race-based disparities in lending (redlining). Originally printed by the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution.

Planning organizations and consultants

• www.designcenter.umn.edu - The University of Minnesota's Metropolitan Design Center is actively involved in urban design projects in the Twin Cities area.
• www.smartgrowth.org - The Smart Growth Network addresses numerous aspects of smart growth, including economics, transportation, environment, financing, and implementation.
• www.metrocouncil.org - Website for the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Council.
• www.calthorpe.com - One of the principal New Urbanist and transit-oriented development (TOD) planning firms.
• www.dpz.com - The firm founded by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zybek, who along with Peter Calthorpe have studied the role of design in revitalization of central city areas.
• www.planning.org - The American Planning Association's website. Provides general information on planning practice.