Community By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities (Hardcover)

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. ... (Journal of the American Planning Association )

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. (Landscape Architecture )

Product Description
More than 50% 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.

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