The Imperfect City
Design, Serendipity, and the Real Life of Cities

Quotes

"Paul Goldberger's thesis in his new book is persuasive in itself—that cities at their best are improvised, 'emergent' systems—but what makes the book delightful is the detail with which he makes his case. From his explanation of why the Manhattan grid plan liberated rather than imprisoned the city's future, to his unorthodox but accurate appraisal of Paris as a place of contradiction more than clarity, to his close-order explication of why the construction of the Seagrams Building on Park Avenue was both a triumph and a trap—throughout, Goldberger sees cities as few writers can. This is an essential book for anyone who loves urban life." —Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon

"A brilliant and entertaining book that will transform how you experience city streets and the buildings that shape them. Paul Goldberger celebrates the serendipity of urban life: the surprises, irregularities, and the energy of shared public spaces. As a critic and lover of cities, he observes the friction and unexpected encounters that give cities their vitality. Yet he warns that today’s market-driven development is leading to hyper-gentrified, generic buildings that are designed without responsibility to a larger public good. The Imperfect City argues for civic-minded planning that embraces the unpredictability and human connection that make cities places where people want to live." —Amanda Burden, former New York City Planning Commissioner

"Paul Goldberger has been writing persuasively about buildings and cities for decades. Now, with this book, nearly everything he has written stands behind a thrilling climax: his belief, explained here with both authority and passion, that the 'imperfect city' of his title is in fact exactly what we should cherish and admire." —Daniel Okrent, author of Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy

"Part memoir, part travelogue, part love letter, The Imperfect City is a gift to everyone who is fascinated by the urban experience and wants to know more. A beautifully written, completely absorbing book." —Eric Klinenberg, author of 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed

"The Imperfect City joins the small handful of essential books about the creation of cities. It explains how good ones come from the confluence of planning and serendipity to become, over time, coherent and surprising, orderly and messy, beautiful and homely, perpetual works-in-progress—in other words, alive. A half century wandering neighborhoods all over the world and his lucid, conversational style make Paul Goldberger the perfect guide, curious fox who knows many things about cities and wise hedgehog who knows one big thing." —Kurt Andersen, author of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America

"In The Imperfect City, Paul Goldberger shows that the city as we know it is a combination of intention and an embrace of the unexpected. With clarity, wit, and a remarkable eye for detail, he shows how the most meaningful urban experiences emerge when careful planning meets serendipity. This is an insightful and deeply engaging book for anyone who cares about how cities shape our lives." —David Rockwell, architect and designer

"Cities are the destiny of humankind. On a planet 75% of whose inhabitants will soon be living in cities, Paul Goldberger has given us an urban rhapsody on a global scale—a thrilling consideration of the complex interplay of planning and serendipity, order and chance, that has shaped the evolution of cities around the world—from New York to Paris to Rome to Amsterdam to Singapore and beyond. No one since Jane Jacobs has written more thoughtfully or more passionately about the perils and promise of urban places everywhere." —Ric Burns, documentary filmmaker