“A biologist who turned later in life to city planning [Patrick] Geddes had begun a series of civic surveys and town revitalization projects in Edinburgh in the 1890s, publishing his results in a series of books and reports that fired young [Lewis] Mumford’s interest in the city. Mumford did not set out to be a city planner or an architect, however. His task, he decided after reading Geddes’ Cities in Evolution, would be ‘to enlarge the vision’ of those who did the actual planning and building.

Patrick Geddes taught Mumford a new way of looking at the cities, an approach based upon direct observation and a biologist’s sensitivity to organic relationships.”

—The Lewis Mumford Reader edited by Donald L. Miller