I don’t really see a focus on aesthetics and intution as a “new” focus, or something that was turned to as a reaction to previous urban planning. I haven’t read the previous works, but what seems to set Jacobs apart is that she didn’t merely base her judgments on what was aesthetically pleasing—that she actually went out and did basic science, collecting observations and forming a hypothesis that explained them.
I don’t really see a focus on aesthetics and intution as a “new” focus, or something that was turned to as a reaction to previous urban planning. I haven’t read the previous works, but what seems to set Jacobs apart is that she didn’t merely base her judgments on what was aesthetically pleasing—that she actually went out and did basic science, collecting observations and forming a hypothesis that explained them.