Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was born on May 4, 1916, in a small town in Pennsylvania, United States, and while still young, she migrated to New York City, drawn by the vibrant and multitudinous urban life of this megacity. There she began to take an interest in urban issues, married an architect, started a family, and consolidated her vocation for journalism.

Without a university degree or specific studies, she became editor of the magazine Architectural Forum. Her articles harshly criticized the dominant urban planning trends in 1950s North America, those that fostered the growth of sprawling suburbs with individual houses, the cult of the private automobile and highways, along with the devaluation of traditional urban centers, the preference for towers, and the systematic demolition of old buildings in the name of progress and modernization.