Community By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities (P/L CUSTOM SCORING SURVEY) - Hardcover

Hall Jr., Kenneth B.; Porterfield, Gerald A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 007134523X ISBN 13: 9780071345231

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2001

Synopsis

More than 50 per cent of Americans live in suburban and exurban communities, and populations are increasing as more people seek green spaces, better access to education, retirement living, and homeownership. Yet these communities, with smaller budgets and no long-term growth planning, are unprepared for the problems - traffic congestion, poor air quality, and strip malls, to name a few - that are now plaguing them. "Community by Design", authored by two specialists in suburban and exurban design and development, shows how to apply good planning practices to these smaller communities.

About this title

Review:

by William A. Green, ASLA

["Community by Design] was written for professionals, politicians, and citizens "taking an active role...and for those who are not yet part of the process but who want to know what it's about."

Part 1, "Parts of the Puzzle," provides the reader with background on a variety of important topics and tools. In Chapter 1, "What is Community Design, Anyway?" the authors introduce basic definitions of neighborhood and community, present the building blocks of community design, and offer a description of spatial components and some of the community designer's tools.

In "Putting It All Together" [Part 2], each chapter contains information focused on community design issues. With chapter titles including "Where Would You Rather Live?" and variants ..."Shop?, ..".Work?, ..".Relax?," the authors present material that is well organized, clear, and accessible. In each chapter they describe pertinent issues, present patterns of development found in conventional suburban developments (those built after World War II), and offer alternatives from traditional neighborhood developments or those developments that are often found in older communities. Each chapter emphasizes some of the choices we have when designing communities as places for living, shopping, working, and relaxing. This comparative format works effectively.

For illustration, the authors provide black-and-white photos, descriptive plans, and project profiles.

..."Community by Design...provide[s] valuable information that...can provide planners, designers, and citizens with information for making more educated community design decisions.

The suburban landscape of the United States - the all-too-familiar array of fast-food franchise, big-box retail stores, parking lots, and clogged arterials - the subject of Hall and Porterfield's book. ... Guided by the principles of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), the authors use excerpts from that organization's charter to illuminate their advocacy of more connected development patterns. The book's scope extends beyond the commercial strip to include the major building blocks of towns and suburbs suck as apartment complexes, schools, parks, and office campuses. ...

One ideal audience for this book might be suburban planning commissioners, who need guidance from designers in order to understand the differences between conventional suburban development pods and walkable human-scale neighborhoods. The many black and white photographs of completed projects are helpful in this regard. ...

by William A. Green, ASLA

İ"Community by Design"¨ was written for professionals, politicians, and citizens "taking an active role...and for those who are not yet part of the process but who want to know what it's about."

Part 1, "Parts of the Puzzle," provides the reader with background on a variety of important topics and tools. In Chapter 1, "What is Community Design, Anyway?" the authors introduce basic definitions of neighborhood and community, present the building blocks of community design, and offer a description of spatial components and some of the community designer's tools.

In "Putting It All Together" İPart 2¨, each chapter contains information focused on community design issues. With chapter titles including "Where Would You Rather Live?" and variants ..."Shop?, ..".Work?, ..".Relax?," the authors present material that is well organized, clear, and accessible. In each chapter they describe pertinent issues, present patterns of development found in conventional suburban developments (those built after World War II), and offer alternatives from traditional neighborhood developments or those developments that are often found in older communities. Each chapter emphasizes some of the choices we have when designing communities as places for living, shopping, working, and relaxing. This comparative format works effectively.

For illustration, the authors provide black-and-white photos, descriptive plans, and project profiles.

..."Community by Design..".provideİs¨ valuable information that...can provide planners, designers, and citizens with information for making more educated community design decisions.

by William A. Green, ASLA

["Community by Design"] was written for professionals, politicians, and citizens "taking an active role...and for those who are not yet part of the process but who want to know what it's about."

Part 1, "Parts of the Puzzle," provides the reader with background on a variety of important topics and tools. In Chapter 1, "What is Community Design, Anyway?" the authors introduce basic definitions of neighborhood and community, present the building blocks of community design, and offer a description of spatial components and some of the community designer's tools.

In "Putting It All Together" [Part 2], each chapter contains information focused on community design issues. With chapter titles including "Where Would You Rather Live?" and variants .,."Shop?, ,.".Work?, ,.".Relax?," the authors present material that is well organized, clear, and accessible. In each chapter they describe pertinent issues, present patterns of development found in conventional suburban developments (those built after World War II), and offer alternatives from traditional neighborhood developments or those developments that are often found in older communities. Each chapter emphasizes some of the choices we have when designing communities as places for living, shopping, working, and relaxing. This comparative format works effectively.

For illustration, the authors provide black-and-white photos, descriptive plans, and project profiles.

..."Community by Design,.".provide[s] valuable information that...can provide planners, designers, and citizens with information for making more educated community design decisions.

From the Back Cover:

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.

Community is not an accumulation of buildings with interstate access, neighborhood not a housing project convenient to shopping. Everyone knows what suburban sprawl looks like and the problems is creates. This book knows answers.The First Step to Communities that WorkCreate maximum livability, cohesiveness, and style in developments outside cities. In these pages, you'll find recommendations for creating true neighborhoods within the context of the existing suburban landscape--in an illustrated, step-by-step, case-study format.

Written by two notable designer/planners, Community by Design makes it simple to:

*Create places that foster community identity, neighborliness, and positive growth in new and existing developments

*Find new solutions to vexing problems in residential, commercial, office, recreational, and public areas

*Accommodate growth in a sustainable manner while preserving the character of the landscape

*Improve your own neighborhood with tested ideas from award-winning design firms.

Community by Design is the first practical guide to creating communities that truly are communities--not merely enclaves near off-ramps. Giving you page after page of solutions to the problems of suburban sprawl and the traffic congestion it engenders, this pictorial guide makes it easy to envision, create, and apply answers that make your town or new development a better place to live.

Community by Design provides complete solutions for all the places that people live, shop, work, and relax, including:

*Defining community in terms we can all understand

*Understanding neighborhood as the fundamental building block of community

*Identifying the process of community design from concept to implementation

*Learning how to put the automobile in its place

*Creating places where people want to walk

*Using recommended design strategies to create livable neighborhoods or recreate existing ones

*Applying the concepts found in traditional neighborhood design in order to bring scale and sense of place

You are given practical ways to integrate the elements discussed throughout the book. This guide to creating communities is more than a pie-in-the-sky.

Community by Design is a concise, realistic, easy-to-read book about making today's communities meet the needs of their citizens. Design professionals, elected officials, and citizens need this book as they take an active role to ensure that their communities are products of real vision. This book is also for those who want to know what it's all about in easily understandable terms and to be able to talk about it with their friends.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 007134523X
• ISBN 13: 9780071345231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296