Raskin was born in the Bronx in 1909. He studied at Columbia University and eventually became adjunct professor of architecture at his Alma Mater between 1936 and 1976.

He wrote two plays: in 1949 One's a Crowd, a comedy about an atomic scientist who develops four personalities after his experiments go horribly wrong, and in 1951 a romantic play entitled Amata.

In 1954, Raskin published Architecturally Speaking; Sequel to Cities came in 1971 and Architecture and People in 1974.

In the early 1960s, Raskin and his wife Francesca played folk music around Greenwich Village in New York. They released an album which included "Those Were The Days", which was initially taken up by the Limeliters.