Boom Cities
Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain
Otto Saumarez Smith
Reviews and Awards
"ingeniously researched, well-written and subtly argued study" -- David Kynaston, Times Literary Supplement
"if you're interested in the motives that inspired the wholesale reshaping of our town and city centres in the Sixties, he has a tale worth telling ... Boom Cities is well-stocked with interesting and revealing quotes ... 4 stars" -- Michael Bird, The Telegraph
"Otto Saumarez Smith, author of Boom Cities, a book on postwar planning, writes with balance, perception and wit." -- Rowan Moore, The Observer
"A most terrific book that should, in all honesty, have been written years ago." -- David Marx, David Marx:Book Reviews
"Boom Cities is much more than a book about buildings. It is instead a study about town planning, welfare and the politics of affluence, and hence central to the history of mid-20th century Britain. Boom Cities may be a slim volume but it is packed with insights which make it an essential reference point for the new urban social history that is rapidly-and excitingly-emerging." -- Professor Simon Gunn, University of Leicester, Reviews in History
"Boom Cities may be a slim volume but it is packed with insights which make it an essential reference point for the new urban social history that is rapidly-and excitingly-emerging." -- Professor Simon Gunn, University of Leicester, Reviews in History
"Saumarez Smith writes deftly and has a deep understanding of his subject" -- Elain Harwood, Literary Review
"hugely readable and fascinating" -- Helen Goodwin, Architecture Today
"Saumarez Smith is a very good writer - frequently insightful, often very funny. He has convincingly argued that the work and world of the architect-planner are valuable for understanding the complex of forces that transformed city centres in Britain in the 1960s. He has supported that argument through a careful and sympathetic reading of local government and private archives." -- Planning Perspectives
"This is a brilliantly researched and very readable book." -- Michael Taylor, Context
"Saumarez Smith demonstrates that the urban plans of the 1960s were shaped by forces that are still central to contemporary practice: the need to use urban renewal to reduce inequalities and yet serve an affluent citizenry; the requirement to balance the needs of a local community against the developer's profit motive; and the desire to insert new forms into the historic cityscape thoughtfully. The resonances with contemporary practice are clear throughout this book: Boom Cities is therefore essential reading not just for historians of 20th century architecture and urbanism, but also for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the development of the contemporary planning profession." -- Ewan Harrison, The RIBA Journal
"Otto Saumarez Smith's [has written a] detailed and engrossing book about the mid-20th-century boom in urban redevelopment ... That the book ends with a sense of "tragedy" and "intense disillusionment" is less of a judgement on the characters involved and more on the inherent penny-pinching -- or money-misdirecting, perhaps -- of the British political class when presented with the chance to create a dignifying, elevating, equalising public realm. The strength of Boom Cities lies in its insistence that blaming individuals for the failures of a whole political and economic system is too easy. It makes us see the things that should have been different, and the ways in which they could still be." -- Lynsey Hanley, New Statesman
"In his meticulous new book Boom Cities, Otto Saumarez Smith wishes us to understand British architect-planners' activities in the 1960s and respect their objectives." -- Will Self, Prospect Magazine
