"An unprecedented and refreshing history of creative placemaking, from the postwar era to the recent aftermath of the Great Recession. Carriere and Schalliol carefully examine the concept of sociability through the evolution of placemaking, describing how the latter expressed and negotiated tensions between individual identity and communal belonging. With compelling photography and hundreds of examples, the authors skillfully unravel a double narrative that characterizes placemaking and urban planning in contemporary American cities. . . . The City Creative is an exciting invitation to look past outdated practices of trickle-down urban development. The book offers a much needed and long overdue history of placemaking that acknowledges its shortcomings, incorporates more inclusive ideas, and celebrates novel practices. With honesty, rigor, and remarkable visual appeal, Carriere and Schalliol encourage readers to seek more holistic outcomes and benefits that can be distributed equitably. In doing so, they recast placemaking in a broader, more generous light."

Journal of Planning History

"Provocative, although its tone is not strident. Implicit in its narrative, the book raises questions about the very core of city revitalization—the interaction of markets and public policies. . . . Courses in urban planning theory or practice may find this study a useful reference on the power of citizen-initiated action outside of the usual parameters of officialdom to reshape neighborhood environments and reinvigorate activity centers. Its highly readable text and copious images make it accessible to laypersons, as well as practitioners and scholars."

Journal of Urban Affairs

"Carriere and Schalliol consider ideas about revitalizing cities by putting arts at the center of economic development. . . . This is a good reference book for students, urban planners, and community activists. . . . Recommended."

Choice

"This is essential reading for this year of crisis (2020) and beyond: in the midst of a global pandemic, which has decimated urban public life, as diverse Americans reclaim the city’s streets in the name of racial justice, The City Creative illustrates a broader history of creative placemaking in American cities and highlights the diverse and sometimes conflicting efforts to build anew. With an assemblage of rigorous case studies, a commitment to community engagement, and a rich compilation of compelling photographs, Carriere and Schalliol show us how the struggle for more inclusive and more just cities begins at the grassroots."
 

Eric Avila, University of California Los Angeles

"The City Creative is a profound exploration of how residents working together can turn around the nation’s most struggling cities. It is part scholarly critique of placemaking as an economic and social strategy of urban revitalization, part gorgeous photo essay of urban experimentations, and part powerful argument for making cities productive rather than postindustrial, with remedies homegrown and not top-down. This breathtaking book inspires hope and confidence in what committed members of a community can make possible."

Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities

“The City Creative is an important book, the first to offer an extensive study of the increasingly ubiquitous practice of creative placemaking. Carriere and Schalliol are the first urbanists offering a persuasive (or any) history of that phenomenon. Drawing upon their rigorous investigation of grassroots local projects, they provide a vital direction for mainstream placemaking to follow.”

Journal of Urban History