Boston Book Festival 2018

Urban areas are the future, and they are also the laboratories for technological innovation and social change. We are pleased to present three outstanding authors on the subject of urbanism. Jeff Speck’s Walkable City distilled the key to urban liveability in one word: walkability. Now, in Walkable City Rules, Speck offers an action plan for cities that desire to enhance street life and livability. Cassim Shepard, founding editor-in-chief of Urban Omnibus, surveys the ways in which citizens are on the vanguard of urban practices today in his book, Citymakers. He argues that the challenges of growing inequality and climate change demand creative coalitions among citizen-activists, ecologists, artists, and public officials. And Matthew Frederick, an advocate for Radical Urbanism, in his engaging 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, gives an overview of the basic rules of urban design. Diana Ramirez-Jasso, provost of the Boston Architectural College, will moderate what is sure to be a lively conversation about cities.