About the Author

RUTHERFORD H. PLATT is professor of geography and director of the Ecological Cities Project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Reviews

"Platt's essayists provide nourishment--like good bagels--to anybody taking a pause on a bench, in Holly Whyte's way, to consider the city as an evolving organism responsive to intelligent leadership."--Roger G. Kennedy, Director Emeritus, National Museum of American History "All across North America truly public space is disappearing. The 'Exploding Metropolis' first anticipated by Whyte is upon us with a vengeance, and at a scale that even he could not have imagined. A dual crisis now confronts us: how can we recapture Whyte's concept of the civic realm while re-engineering our urban landscapes for sustainable future? The Humane Metropolis outlines the way, and shows us how we might all participate in its creation."--Patrick M. Condon, UBC James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments, Design Centre for Sustainability, University of British Columbia "A powerful collection of both ideas about and practical data on approaches to help develop cities into people places. . . . The wide-ranging viewpoints and depth of scholarship will certainly make this a heralded and major contribution to the field."--Nancy L. Winter "An important addition to the evolving literature and work in urban ecology, and an excellent contribution to the life and legacy of one of the twentieth century's finest humanists, intellectuals, and activists, William H. Whyte."--Harvey K. Flad, emeritus professor of geography, Vassar College "The Humane Metropolis introduces a new generation to William H. Whyte's visionary ideas on the role of nature in the city, and outlines the steps we must take to strike a balance between humans and nature in America's 21st-century urban areas."--Robert D. Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association and Practice Professor, University of Pennsylvania "College-level collections strong in urban studies will find this perfect for classroom discussion, assignment, and for college-level contemporary social issues reference libraries."--The Bookwatch