BECOMING JANE JACOBS

Dr. Peter Laurence is an associate professor of architecture and urban design at Clemson University School of Architecture. He has been a student of Jane Jacobs's work for many years, with studies in business and entrepreneurship, architecture, and urban history drawing him to her books on cities, economies, and civilizations. First as a Master's thesis at Harvard and then as a dissertation at University of Pennsylvania, Becoming Jane Jacobs is the term paper that took twenty years to write. Prior to Becoming Jane Jacobs, his research on Jacobs and architectural and urban history was published in Journal of Urban Design, Journal of Architectural Education, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, in addition to a number of edited volumes including Reconsidering Jane Jacobs, changing Jacobs scholarship. After Becoming Jane Jacobs, his research and publications continued. Although not all biographical subjects can sustain such a depth of study, Jacobs’s enduring ideas about cities and societies reward continued attention.