Lit Review

While the long-term spatial implications of autonomous vehicles (AVs) remain largely underestimated, Autonomous Urbanism argues that AVs offer a major opportunity to rethink our cities’ built environments—with profound implications on urban life, as automobiles transformed the design of cities in the prior century. However, AVs also risk reinforcing many negative effects of auto-based urbanism, including urban sprawl, single-function in-frastructure, congestion, and environmental degradation. Instead, Shieh proposes a driverless mobility paradigm shift that moves cities away from automobile dependency towards automated mass transit and mobility-as-a-service—using the city of Los Angeles as a test bed.

The development and expansion of U.S. cities over the last 150 years gave rise to one of the most ambitious and fastest growing build-ing projects the world had ever seen. The landscape of cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and others transformed immeasurably as a consequence of decades of construction. Some of the most iconic architecture in the world—in the form of museums, skyscrapers, residential homes and airports—is located in U.S. cities. Through detailed, professional photography and the writing of Sam Lubell, American Icons recounts the stories that form the American skylines, stories told by some of the greatest architects of the 20th century.

Adaptable Cities examines temporary urbanisms—the revitalization of underutilized public spaces—across varied global contexts. The book considers their significance for cities and everyday life, as well as for policy and practice. It brings together many distinct forms and facets of temporariness and adaptability—such as sites of consumption by privileged residents and the survival strategies of marginalized groups—drawing on examples spanning five continents. The author highlights how adaptability enhances livability, sustainability, and resilience, showing its importance for addressing crises such as climate change, socioeconomic inequalities, and pandemics.

In the decades preceding World War II, professional architecture schools enrolled increasing numbers of women, but career success did not come easily. Women Architects at Work tells the stories of the resilient and resourceful women who surmounted barriers of sexism, racism, and classism to take on crucial roles in the establishment and growth of Modernism across the United States.

Alongside illustrations, Hunting and Murphy explain how innovative practitioners—alumnae from the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts, which evolved for the professional education of women between 1916 and 1942—capitalized on social, educational, and professional ties to achieve success, and used modernist architecture to address social concerns, engaging with the community and environment.