Just to give it a try from the end backward, so that we can see how it goes with the cultural sites.
The 14 sites for selection are:

Tel Aviv
Val di Noto
Shibam
San Cristobal
Saltaire
Pienza
New Lanark
Morelia
Mantua and Sabbioneta
Le Havre
Ferrara
Crespi d'Adda
Brasilia
Modern Berlin

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/categories/category47.html

My personal selection:

Val di Noto
Shibam
Ferrara
Brasilia
San Cristobal
Saltaire

we need one "philanthropist" town but I find Saltaire disappointing
I have never been able to appreciate the value of San Cristobal and have just been reading up about it in readiness for a visit next week! It always seems to me to be a typical hyped up inscription with not a great deal on show

New Lanark and Crespi d'Adda would be alternatives as philantropist towns. You might be right about San Cristobal. It seems influential yet underwhelming. Same as modern Berlin.

my selections are

Ferrara
Val di Noto
Shibam
Morelia
Brasilia

This is quite a category to start off on for cultural sites! I find it interesting that outside of Shibam, all of these targets fall under either Europe and North America or Latin America. Are there really no good urban planning inscriptions for other regions on the WHS list? At any rate, here are my choices:

1. Shibam: excellent example of vertical city planning
2. Ferrara: we need one example of Italian Renaissance urban planning; I like Pienza's claim as the earliest example of a Renaissance ideal, but when I saw the list Ferrara was the first one I thought of
3. San Cristóbal de la Laguna: inscribed for its influence on Spanish colonial cities in the Americas, so for that it seems significant; I have no strong affinity for this choice though, so if I had to drop one, this would be it
4. New Lanark: very nice example of a philanthropist factory town
5. Brasilia: the pre-eminent example of 20th century architecture and urban planning

Mine would be:

Iconic & unique:
Shibam
Brasilia

Others worth a detour or with significant value on a specialized subject:
Tel Aviv
Val di Noto
Ferrara
Crespi d'Adda

Doubtful because of a not too great visitor experience:
San Cristobal (Tenerife should be represented by Teide volcano, there's not much else to see there)
New Lanark

My selection:
Tel Aviv
Val di Noto
Shibam
New Lenark
Ferrara
Brasilia

White city Tel Aviv seems to be the most problematic in the above proposals
I note that Assif who is from there doesn't propose it - read his review!
Having also visited it I agree entirely with his caveats. OK as a British planned city it reflects its era and has some nice buildings (albeit that some are not well preserved or have been altered with extra floors etc). It is certainly a lively/fun city but short in my view of star quality as a representative of that era's architecture or planning.

Tel Aviv too.

Actually it has worsened a lot in recent time. New towers are erected everywhere in the historic city centre and this includes the nominated area. Some of the nominated buildings even have a new tower topping them. I wonder why this doesn't make Unesco put it on the red list. I consider these new developments a critical attack on the already limited integrity the site had in the first place.

Grand Bassam could, I feel, have been so categorised. (Not that I am suggesting it for inclusion under any category)
But many sites beyond those assigned to 2 Categories have multiple aspects.

My selection:
Ferrara

A fair few of the places that sprang to mind here will be covered in other categories, Edinburgh and Puebla were my first thoughts.

Of those listed: Brasilia, Shibam and Ferrara would probably get my vote. Possible nod to New Lanark, I don't think it is exceptional but it would be the best of the philanthropist towns. Though I would say only the first two would get near my idea of a top 200.

I don't think we should give San Cristobal any credit for its role in colonial planning as there are many better examples in the Colonial towns category. Also if a site probably isn't good enough to make it into the top 25 for its own country it isn't going to make it in the little green man's final itinerary.

So in doing some research on Asian planned cities, I did find two sites in China inscribed on the World Heritage Site list for urban planning and the principles of feng shui: the city of Ping Yao and the ancient villages of Xidi and Hongcun. Would either of these sites work as Asian representatives for this urban planning category to diversify from the number of sites already listed from the Europe and North America and the Latin America and the Caribbean regions?

I couldn't find any good examples already on the list from India, though I did note that Jaipur and Delhi (including part of New Delhi) are on India's tentative list; no love for Jamshedpur, though. China also has the Central Axis of Beijing on its tentative list as another representative of urban planning.


Sorry for the confusion, Assif. I was thinking in terms of the UNESCO WHS regions, in which Israel is categorized with Europe and North America, rather than actual geographic regions, in which Israel falls within the Levant/Middle East/Southwest Asia (depending on who is naming the region).