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No shame in copying.

Look at great examples of Section drawings of Streetscapes and emulate them in some way. Pay attention to the details, how do they dimension? how do they draw a person, car, bus, tree? How do they depict architecture?

Here's a famous example: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Streets-Allan-B-Jacobs/dp/0262600234

Go digital though if you can do that look.


Getting dimensions is fairly simple. Measure from google earth. Measuring tape, Find out a street standard for a particular city to fact check as you go along. Figure out your pace as you walk across a roadway.

For buildings:

Step 1: Have a friend with a specific height (let's say 6') or most doorways are 6'8" tall.
Step 2: Have them stand against a building.
Step 3: Take a photo from further away to get the entire building and your friend in the photo.

Step 4: Now to find the height figure out how many of your friend (6') you can fit from the ground to the roof of the building.

e.g. This building can fit your friend 4 times so your building is 24'.


Hope this helps.

Like /u/maackii said, that's a big topic. I would start by asking yourself which specific cities you'd like to learn more about, and then searching from there. Two suggestions I'd give are:

The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City - About Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan For Chicago.

City Making In Paradise - This is more about recent history, but if you are interested in politics and policy in shaping cities I would highly recommend it. Focuses on decisions that shaped Vancouver from 1940 onwards.

Happy City is brilliant. About 25% through it and I love it.

This one is pretty good Zoning Rules! by William A. Fischel.
It touches on the economics of planning and explains a lot of the real issues that you deal with in the field... like why NIMBYism everywhere.

There is a huge body of work on the built environment and public health from both the planning profession and the public health profession. The following two books are good starting points:

• Health and Community Design: The Impact Of The Built Environment On Physical Activity
  
• Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities

This is a really good introduction https://www.amazon.co.uk/Basics-Landscape-Architecture-01-Design/dp/2940411123

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The New Civic Art is my fave.

https://www.amazon.com/Vancouver-Representing-Postmodern-Paul-Delany/dp/1551520028

I read this a while ago and it gives a good analysis of very particular Vancouver issues but winds it into an overarching narrative of the city

1. The Life and Death of American Cities - Jane Jacobs is a must. It basically created the entire category of urban design. Absolutely canonical.
   
   Also Retrofitting Suburbia, Updated Edition: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson.
   
   TEDTalk associated with this book is a good listen.
   
   I'm more informed about "New Urbanism" which was taught at my school. Look at Congress of New Urbanism.

I had a book named The City Shaped that talked about this. A link to it on Amazon here

David Sucher's City Comforts is a must read.

Also, The Spotter's Guide to Urban Engineering and Charles Montgomery's Happy City are very informative.

Here is the mobile version of your link

Not the kind you steal from the store. The kind you use if you have to walk your groceries home. https://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-Utility-Shopping-Cart-Durable/dp/B013WFZ4P0