A comparative study of thirty significant public parks in major cities across Western Europe and North America. "Great City Parks is a 344-page treasure chest for park professionals and aficionados and catnip for city park enthusiasts. It is a book to which one can return repeatedly and which one can treat both as a great reference book and as a primer for how one might think about designing or restoring the next great park." - Adrian Benepe, The Nature of Cities "Great City Parks [first edition] by Alan Tate, who himself has designed parks from Hong Kong to Disney Paris, is a detailed analysis of twenty parks, their planning, design and the management criteria for their success. The parks chosen are of different size, ages and characteristics. Each was designed for public use, allowed free admission and, to Tate, are significant examples of design. He reviews the sites, the rationale for their choice and the key figures behind their creation and design."- Dr Michael Bounds, Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney