‘The Well-Tempered City’: An Epic Book, and Why
Note to Reader:
In a Huffington Post review, Chuck Wolfe describes how Jonathan F.P. Rose’s new book, The Well-Tempered City, captures a life’s worth of experience and thinking of the prominent New York developer and philanthropist, and how Rose’s seven years of applied work on the book is readily apparent.
Below are extracts from a synopsis of the Chuck Wolfe blog, published online by Planetizen.
In a review of Jonathan F.P. Rose’s new book, ‘The Well-Tempered City,’ Chuck Wolfe enthusiastically endorses Rose’s refreshing world view
Rose’s inspirational theme is Johann Sebastian Bach’s then-novel, 18th century system of tuning musical instruments in The Well-Tempered Clavier. Rose takes Bach’s premise of aligning human ideals with natural harmony, and applies it to urban progress and potential such as greening cities today.
Chuck Wolfe describes Rose’s reliance on a Portland Sustainability Institute (now “Ecodistrict‘) graphic to show such ideals and harmony, and to explain Portland residents’ aspirations for a green, accessible and safe city, with places where people 
will want to spend their time.
Wolfe concludes, “if you worry that a lofty fascination with classical music is not the recipe for mediating concerns about urban density, affordability, access to public transit or climate change, fear not, because it’s all there.”
To Learn More:
Download Why ‘The Well-Tempered City’ is a One-Stop, Urban Epic to read the complete article written by Chuck Wolfe and published online by the Huffington Post in September 2016.
Chuck Wolfe is an environmental and land use lawyer in Seattle, who also writes frequently about cities for several publications, and speaks on urban topics nationally and overseas. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington and the author of Urbanism Without Effort (Island Press 2013).
