Jonathan F.P. Rose talks about the future of cities
Eye on Real Estate: His book, “The Well-Tempered City,” calls altruism a key to urban survival
By the end of this century, 85 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. The future of civilization depends on whether cities can survive an array of looming threats ranging from climate change to terrorism.
And you thought urban planning was a dull, wonky occupation.
Jonathan F.P. Rose, founder of the investment, development and urban planning firm Jonathan Rose Companies, has written a big, bold book. It’s called “The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life.”
It draws insights from the history of the world’s earliest cities, from the failures and successes of modern cities and from scientific disciplines such as genetics and neuroscience.
“The Well-Tempered City” was published on Sept. 13 by Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Rose, who has a BA in psychology and philosophy from Yale and a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania, works with cities and not-for-profits to plan and build affordable and mixed-income housing and cultural, health and educational centers. His firm has two development projects underway in Brooklyn.
Rose’s work has won him awards from organizations including the Urban Land Institute, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
His family name is a familiar one to New Yorkers. His father, the late Frederick P. Rose, was a philanthropically-minded developer who oversaw the construction of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, which houses the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium.
The Brooklyn Eagle sat down recently with Jonathan F.P. Rose in his company’s Midtown Manhattan office to talk about the problems and promise of the modern metropolis. Here is our interview, edited for space considerations: