Jane Jakobs was an American-born Canadian writer, best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), which attacked postwar modernist urban renewal policies in the U.S.. She examined how cities should work from street design to how to them friendly for all forms of transport.

She died at the ripe old age of 89, and theMechanism salutes her.

Read a fantastic interview conducted by Metropolis Magazine in 2000 here.