Jane Jacobs

*The Death and Life of Great American Cities* (1961) demolished the orthodoxy of urban renewal — the bulldozer-and-tower-block planning that Robert Moses was inflicting on New York. Her organising work helped block the Lower Manhattan Expressway.

An empirical, sidewalk-level theory of cities: short blocks, mixed uses, dense streets, eyes-on-the-street. "A city cannot be a work of art."

The intellectual parent of New Urbanism and walkability advocacy. Vincent Scully Prize 2000.