Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been attacking Barack Obama lately for trying to bring European Social Democracy to this country. A new book on 44 urban transformation projects in European Union makes us wish “if only!”

The book details some well known projects—the Novartis campus in Basel, the new Bilbao Metro, and Strasbourg’s car park by Zaha Hadid architects—but it also features many lesser known projects that make Europe seem like the most interesting testing ground for transforming aging cities into new livable ones. Developed from a 2010 exhibition by Architecture Workroom Brussels, the book does not have a distributor in this country, so we are loathe to review,  but it turns out that the book is designed by New York City-based Project Projects, and they are hosting a launch of the book on Sunday, March 11 from 4-6pm at their office at 161 Bowery on the second floor.