Becoming an Urban Planner: A Guide to Careers in Planning and Urban Design

by Michael Bayer, Nancy Frank, Jason Valerius

Becoming an URBAN PLANNER Are you considering a career in urban planning? Becoming an Urban Planner is the best place to start. Through in-depth interviews with more than eighty urban planners across the United States and Canada, this book gives you a valuable insider’s look at your future profession as it is lived and practiced. Becoming an Urban Planner introduces you to the urban planning profession―its history, what you must know to prepare for a career in planning, and the different types of planning jobs. Beyond the basics, though, it shows you the realities of what it’s really like to be a planner today. You’ll learn Each topic is explored through in-depth interviews with both generalists and others who have devoted their careers to a particular aspect of planning. These professionals share their insights and describe how they have arrived at where they are and how beginners like you can learn from their experiences. With the information from this book to guide and inspire you, you will be able to chart your own path to success as an urban planner.

Genres: Urban Planning, Urban Studies, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

Reviews

[F]

I find this a very narrow view of planning. It is mainly focused on the American approach in planning, policy making, and citizen engagement. It also narrows down “planning” and rarely mentions all its aspects. I slightly enjoyed the interviews within the chapters as they give a bit of insight about a planner’s career. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book at all to a planner or someone curious about planning outside of the US.

[Brendi]

Recommend

Great overview for anyone considering becoming an urban planner. The author is clear and concise, and the extensive use of real life professional’s experiences is useful. Definitely recommend.

[Jamie]

A very informative guide to becoming an urban planner. It describes various roles that urban planners play in communities, possible educational paths to becoming a planner, and the daily lives of real planners. I think it's good to hear about the daily aspect of planning, as with any career, as the popular perception is often miss matched with reality.

The content written by numerous working planners was a much larger part of the book than I expected. These planner-authored sections showed the diversity of paths taken to becoming a planner, and provides a forum for practicing planners to say what they would have done differently. They were very helpful overall, but some of the interviews got a little repetitive after a while. It was good, and skipping some of the redundancy is easy, if desired.

[Michael Lewyn]

This book contains interviews with dozens of different types of urban (and not-so-urban) planners, asking them about their career paths, what they like about their jobs, and what they don't like. It is so comprehensive that I cannot think of anything that I wish it had covered.

This book does tend to be a little slanted to the left (in the sense that it takes for granted the sort of concerns that tend to be more common among liberals, such as various environmental concerns and the belief that energy supplies are dwindling). On the other hand, I suspect most of this book's intended audience probably leans in that direction as well.

[Mike Bularz]

Light read but a crash course in what planning is everyday, and the different facets of various related careers from zoning law to regional planning. Worth it for anyone interested in the profession.

[Mohammed Alyahya]

واحد من أفضل الكتب التي تعرّف مهنة التخطيط العمراني، ويضيف للمختصين في هذا المجال أو المهتمين إلى رصيد معلوماتهم وبلغة سهلة جدا.

[Jason]

Quite informative, but uninspiring. Like most publications on planning, the book cites models and concepts already heavily theorized. I did line the interviews from various planning professionals.

[Jackie]

Very helpful (if you're considering becoming an urban planner).