Citizen Jane, battle for the city

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is a standard reference work for architects and urban designers. In her 1961 book, Jacobs challenged the urban renewal of the time. By simply studying life in the city and in public spaces, she saw the essence of the city and how urban renewal was destroying it. The murderer was ‘master builder’ Robert Moses. Citizen Jane: Battle for the City tells the story of Jane Jacobs and does not shirk from holding up her story as a mirror to the urban design of today. A must-see for everybody who loves the city.

92 min. Matt Tyrnauer, US 2016

With a lecture by Tim Verlaan. Tim Verlaan is an assistant professor in Urban History at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on the urban renewal agendas of American and Western European cities during the post-war era. He wrote a PhD dissertation on the politics of redevelopment in Dutch cities during the 1960s and 1970s. As an associate editor of Urban History, a contributing editor at Failed Architecture and adviser in the field of cultural heritage, Tim examines our built environment as the product of contemporary political, economic and social conditions.