What do Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Cardinal Richelieu, defender of Quebec, and Napoleon III of the Second French Empire have in common? Besides wielding political power and securing their own survival, all three played a leading role in real estate development. Placemakers examines their contributions to "place" along with those of other, sometimes unlikely candidates.

From Augustus, emperor of ancient Rome, responsible for shaping the world's largest city into an imperial capital, to Joseph Smith of frontier America, who preached about the "Promised Land" while practicing land speculation, this illustrated volume focuses on the visionaries and profiteers who put their stamp on history - and on the land. Meanwhile, it examines their motives, which range from slum clearing to utopian dreams to social engineering.

What these developers built was sometimes monumental; examples include the ziggurat of Ur, a truncated pyramid, and the Pharos of Alexandria, the world's first lighthouse and tallest structure of the ancient word. At other times their vision changed society - think shopping malls and skyscrapers. Placemakers celebrates their legacy around the globe, from the Middle East to Europe and North America, making side trips to China and even outer space. It will appeal to architects, planners and all others who are curious about the history of real estate development.

Herb Auerbach's profile page

Ira Nadel's profile page

Herb Auerbach teaches a course on real estate development at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. His lengthy career as an architect and real estate development consultant included work for I.M. Pei & Associates in New York City and Concordia Estates in Montreal. He has an abiding interest in history, travel and the visual arts.

Ira Nadel is a professor of English at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He has published biographies of Leonard Cohen, Tom Stoppard and David Mamet and critical studies of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. With the San Francisco architect Donald MacDonald, he has published books on the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the new Bay Bridge.

"A fascinating study of real estate development that goes back to some of the earliest days of land ownership and our relentless, exhausting quest to build. Auerbach and Nadel bring the evolution of all our human settlement-making to captivating and vivid life" - Kerry Gold, real estate columnist, The Globe and Mail