3 comments about The Situationist City.

1. You could hardly find a greater betrayal of the Situationist movement in all of its aspects, than this book, which translates a chaotic, exciting and iconoclastic movement into a boring and platitudinous addition to the obligatory academic discourse about everything.
   
   Throw this thing in the trash, don't even resell it, certainly don't donate it to any charities or libraries. Go right now instead and find "The Situationist International: A User's Guide" by Simon Ford, you won't regret it. I swear to God I am not lying and I have no institutional or other affiliation that would conflict with this judgment.



2. I can't say I enjoyed this at all. Unles you're heavily into aesthetics and understand most of the avante-garde terms, you're not going to make any sense of this. The book was overly pretentious and I couldn't burden myself to finish it. It's not at all what you'd expect, and the synopsis is misleading.

   Get the book Guy Debord and the Situationist International instead. Guy Debord was part of the Lettrist International, which founded alot of the psycho-geographical ideas. I guarantee it'll be a more interesting read than this.




3. An excellent book, within the constraints the author sets for himself, to deal primarily with what could ahistorically, but reasonably be called "situationist" architecture and architectural theory. There is no doubt the book makes bored, sensitive fellows like myself want to go out and do something to keep these insane transformational ideas alive and working in culture. I'd love to have a list of all the other bored people, we could have a big party.

5 comments about The American City : What Works, What Doesn't.

1. The writing is clear and concise and Garvin does a great job of making the material interesting and relevant!



2. Mr. Garvin addresses the key factors that actually create effective change for cities today. He places a heavy emphasis on sound real estate financing, but he also demonstrates the need for effective government action and political leadership to spur private develoopments. When combined with good design and a proper reading of market forces, American Cities can and will be changed for the benefit of all its citizens.

   Readers must understand, however, that Mr. Garvin does not ascribe what is "Best for the City." Each city represents a unique example and requires specific consideration when planning its future. Instead, Mr. Garvin brilliantly provides an accurate set of tools to direct a city's future, thus allowing the reader to determine what the future of his or her city should be.

   Whether you're intersted in planning the future of your city or simply learning what influences the development of your city, I highly recommend this book.




3. Garvin's text is of course a classic for students of American cities. As a sourcebook on successes and failures in cities all over the country it is unsurpassed. Garvin shows a depth of knowledge in planning issues that is deeply rooted in expertise in real estate development, economics, and politics. His insights into "what works" shows a lifetime of knowing the ins and outs of how urban developments get done in the real world.

   The one shortcoming of "The American City" is Garvin's lack of attention to such planning concepts as participatory planning and community building. His "six ingredients of success" make a convenient tool for teaching basic planning concepts, but the text falls short in explaining the theortical underpinnings of planning today. Students walk away from Garvin's book convinced that good planning is esentially good real estate development. Little thought is given to concepts of fairness or social justice. Garvin never asks the student, for instance, "who are we planning for?" These theortical questions are essential to give students a deeper and more nuanced view of urban planning.




4. When Alexander Garvin's "The American City" was first published in 1996, it fast became a classic text in universities all over the country in the study of the city. Because it is an incredibly rich and profoundly insightful interdisciplinary exploration of all aspects of the planning of cities, it has been eagerly embraced by students of architecture, planning, urban studies, government, finance, and even sociology. Because it is so compelling written and marvelously accessible, however, it has also become a beloved book by lay people interested in any and every aspect of what determines the life and success of the created environment in which they live.

   Since most of the original edition was actually completed by 1990, it did not include the last decade of development in the fast-changing world of urban thinking. In this second edition, Mr. Garvin brings his study of the city into the twenty-first century, including examples, issues, and trends that did not exist at the time the first edition was written. More strikingly, however, he has also succeeded in reorganizing and restating his original material-sometimes subtly, and sometimes more extensively-in even more powerful and effective ways. But whether it is the almost completely new chapter on Retail Shopping, or the only mostly preserved gem from the first edition on Parks and Playgrounds, all of the clarity and vitality so characteristic of Mr. Garvin's writing are enhanced in this new edition. The new edition also features numerous new photographs-a particular treat to the many readers who especially appreciate the masterful way he has illustrated his points with visual images, virtually all taken by Mr. Garvin himself. (Since he is firmly committed to the principle that one actually has to experience and explore in person the environments one is studying, the author makes sure to use images that reflect his own personal vision, which fortunately for us is as artistically pleasing as it is intellectually informative.)

   Whether one wishes to understand the history of American cities, learn the principles of real estate development, research the trends in government involvement in housing and urban renewal, get insight into why particular undertakings in particular cities worked or failed, or, most excitingly, sense the incredible complexity and interaction of all those forces (historical, political, architectural, legislative, sociological, economic, etc.) that determine and describe the life of the city, this book is a must-read-and one that is as enjoyable as it is informative and enlightening.




5. There is a very good reason that Garvin's The American City has become required reading for most of the major urban affairs programs across the country: it stands alone as the definitive book on practical urban planning as we enter the 21st century. The first edition of this book, released in 1995, was a breath of fresh air in the field as it avoided emotional polemics in favor of thorough, pragmatic analyses of virtually every aspect of urban planning. This new, 560 page edition builds on the strengths of the original but has been substantially updated. It now includes coverage of the effects of stadiums and entertainment centers, BIDs, environmental factors, and much more. It has also been updated with the latest statistical information and additional stunning photos, as well as follow-ups on the projects originally covered in the first edition.

   Garvin himself is uniquely qualified to write this book. For over thirty years he has taught Yale University's Introduction to the Study of the City course, while remaining busy as an architect, real estate developer and Director of Comprehensive Planning for the City of New York. After the publication of the original edition he became the Managing Director for Planning of New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympics (which was just selected as one of the finalists), and this year he was chosen to head up the complete rebuilding of the World Trade Center site after September 11 as the Vice President for Planning, Design and Construction of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

   If you have any interest whatsoever in the history, design, or improvement of America's urban landscape, this is the book to get. As Paul Goldberger, the former architecture critic of the New York Times has written: "I will read it again and again, sometimes from front to back, sometimes from back to front, sometimes to page through at a random, sometimes to consult and help me with a particular problem. I guarantee dog-eared pages within a year."

4 comments about Architecture is Elementary: Visual Thinking Through Architectural Concepts.

1. Students of architecture today do not know the meaning of the Modern Architecture, this elementary book helps them understand the spatial conquest made by humanity from the cave to the lightest eco-buildings.



2. I am sorry to report that this book is awful. It is either condescending, or it is meant for elementary students. It was for a college-level arhcitecure study. There are no pictures, only drawings. I despised it.



3. The sequence and research given in this book is a comprehensive base for anyone teaching architecture, social studies, buildings, or practical geometry. Timelines, black/whie drawings throughout.



4. An excellent source of information for anyone interested in the field of Architecture. Perfect for beginners and experienced architects alike! Well-written and coherent.

No comments about Spacecraft: Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts.

3 comments about Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development.

1. As a rural resident trying to help my town control predatory developers and manage issues of growth and land use, this book is a potent tool, a fact that is clearly disturbing to some who stand to profit handsomely from sprawl, like the automobile and oil companies, the large-scale construction industries, millionaire developers, automobile manufacturers, and big-box national retailers.
   
   It's interesting that Diane Bast has written a negative review without mentioning, either here or in her Amazon.com profile, that she holds the title of Vice President of Internal Affairs for the benign-sounding (and Richard Mellon Schiafe-funded) "Heartland Institute," whose work she cites here.
   
   She also fails to mention that her husband Joseph L. Bast is also founder, president and CEO of the Institute, whose board of directors includes representatives from General Motors, Exxon-Mobil, and Philip Morris, along with various banks and insurance companies. The Institute has also over the years received substantial funding from the tobacco industry, among other large multinational companies. Of course, none of these board members mention these affiliations on Heartland's flowers-and-little-kids adorned official website, because that would be giving the real purpose of the organization away.
   
   I doubt that such an organization would subsidize any research which would support public transportation or de-emphasize converting far-flung farmland or open space into cookie-cutter subdivisions, so Ms. Bast's citations are unsurprising given her unmentioned affiliation to that organization.
   
   As for Mr. Cox, a quick check of his consultancy website reveals his purpose is to denigrate comprehensive planning efforts (because they supposedly put constraints on private ownership and the so-called "free market") and to promote gasoline-powered transportation over rail, public transportation and other environmentally- friendly alternatives. (In the 1920s and 30s, a consortium of carmakers and tire manufacturers bought up and dismantled existing electric trolley systems in major cities, and Mr. Cox and his colleagues are apparently dedicated to making sure that such systems stay dead.)
   
   In fact, despite Ms. Bast's derision of "politics" as a factor in the costs of sprawl, the Heartland Institute has been more than willing to use politics to its own corporate ends, including coordinating the blast-faxing of legislators to oppose or overturn anti-smoking, pro-environmental and health-care regulatory legislation that could cut into the profits of its benefactor companies. Despite her sprinkling her review with references to the poor and minorities, her organization believes in unfettered corporate power, first and foremost. I believe the reader should take that into account when reading her comments.
   
   The fact remains that sprawl enriches developers, car manufacturers, oil and real estate companies much, much more than individual homeowners, who find that as gas hits $3 - $4 a gallon and above, and their property taxes jump as overburdened small towns try to cope with the sudden need to build new schools and keep formerly little-used town roads in repair, that their "affordable" homes cost them more to own than they imagined -- and that the only part of the supposed wealth they generate is when they sell them, long after the strip-mall, big-box and cookie-cutter developers have pocketed their profits and gone elsewhere.
   
   There is a biological analog to unfettered and out of control growth. It's called "cancer." Cancer eventually kills its host. Sprawl kills community life and saps a region's vitality. This book lays out the evidence in black and white.
   
   For more information on the Heartland Institute, go to www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute.



2. According to an article by Wendell Cox, senior fellow for The Heartland Institute, this book rehashes the tired claims about suburbanization (pejoratively called "urban sprawl") being unnecessarily costly. In fact, however, Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development (by Robert Burchell, Anthony Downs, Barbara McCann, and Sahan Mukheri) relies on prospective data that is soundly refuted by reality.
   
   The book is an outgrowth of a study led by Burchell, which concluded that more compact (less suburban) development could save $225,000,000,000 in government spending over 25 years. The study made the all-too-common error of concluding that many zeros after a number make it significant. They do not. It will probably take the average reader at least 225,000,000,000 nanoseconds to read this article. $225 billion over 25 years is less than $30 per capita each year. This is a pittance in comparison with overall government expenditures, which have risen more than 100 times that fast over the past 25 years after adjustment for inflation.
   
   Aside from the shock value, the validity of the numbers is questionable. In fact, the suburbs are not more expensive. Joshua Utt and I published research analyzing Bureau of the Census data for more than 700 municipalities concluding that actual (not theoretical) per-capita public expenditures are lowest in the newer suburbs. Even sewer costs were found to be lowest in the newer suburbs. The principal reasons are that politics, congestion, and labor costs drive costs higher in more compact development.
   
   Sprawl Costs' weakest assertion may be that more compact development would reduce the cost of an average new house $16,000, a conjecture that ignores economic reality. To accomplish the more compact development Burchell et al. would prefer requires stringent regulation, such as urban growth boundaries, greenbelts, and other limits on development. Rationing land, like anything else, results in higher prices. Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko, in work published by Harvard University, reported that the principal cause of differences in housing affordability among U.S. metropolitan areas is zoning and land regulation.
   
   The current "housing bubble" is most pronounced where there is strong land rationing-places like California, Portland, and the Northeast, from Boston to Washington's Virginia and Maryland suburbs. In the past five years actual house prices in those areas have risen $200,000 more than the average in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston, growth dynamos where there is little land rationing. In just five years, the conjectural $16,000 savings over 25 years have been consumed 12 times over by the actual excess price increases in areas that have implemented the very strategies required to compel the compact development advocated by Burchell et al.
   
   Moreover, with minority home ownership in the U.S. a full third below the Non-Hispanic White homeownership rate, the cost-increasing effects of land rationing are today denying opportunity and blocking the ladder to the economic mainstream. Of course, the higher prices will also drive other millions out of the homeownership market.
   
   All of this shifts wealth from young to old and poorer to richer in a perverse trickle-up economy. The American Dream is under threat. A nation of renters will be less affluent.
   
   None of this is to suggest that suburbanization should be the favored form of urban development. Instead, people should be allowed to live and work where and how they like. Anti-suburban interests have yet to find a compelling reason why this should not be so.
   
   Sprawl Costs misses the economic opportunities and wealth that have been created by broad home ownership, made possible by building new houses on inexpensive land in the suburbs. It is not surprising that virtually all urban growth in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has been suburban for decades. Consumers know better. What Burchell et al. perceive as costs are really benefits.
   
   Wendell Cox (cox@heartland.org) is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, a national university in Paris.



3. I just heard one of the authors on talk radio out here and must say that I was blown away by the amount of money sprawl costs every year. Just making a list of the items that tap into our tax dollars is staggering: schools, highways, sewers, electricity, water. And if you watch a new housing development going into the desert, this fact is so obvious---much of the bill must be paid by all the rest of us, how else could they afford all those big costs. So I know the argument for sprawl is that if we didn't have it, housing prices would go through the roof. But one sensible point this author made is that with a very limited change in the way we live, would result in a massive savings to our government spending. So I hope people will listen to this message cause it seems to make sense to me. Looking forward to reading the book, and I hope government officials will as well.

4 comments about The Oregon Experiment (Center for Environmental Structure Series).

1. The good news is that this book is a short summary of what most people
   will find important when they apply patterns either in the field of architecture
   or in their own field of design. It provides insight into Alexander's theory
   of economics--a stance which caused him to be unfavorably labeled as a
   socialist when these ideas were taking form.
   
   Patterns, in this book, are almost a footnote to the broader ideas of
   design, of economics, and of socially coordinated construction that
   form the core of Alexander's exposition here. The economics form a
   compelling argument for a process of piecemeal growth. Alexander gives
   practical advice on how to administer the social process, including the
   creation of a community pattern board that oversees the introduction of
   new patterns into the community language, and the retirement of old
   ones. By putting the pattern mantra aside, this book helps the reader
   get beyond the point where they are looking for patterns in their own right
   to provide the answer to every design question, and pushes the reader
   to think at the level of the foundations.
   
   The bad news is that the book takes the reader into a couple of miscues.
   Alexander would later bitterly recant the role this book accords to the
   architect. Architects should be master builders rather than the font of
   design ideas. The architecture role emerged in the Oregon Experiment
   to lend the project an air of conventionality and credibility, a compromise
   that kept the project from achieving its goals.
   
   Current tidbits of retrospective literature try to make sense of the experiment;
   some claim it succeeded (in spite of those aspects Alexander felt were
   wrong-headed) and some claim it failed. Grabow's biography of
   Alexander (Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in
   Architecture) features some choice words about the miscues in this
   experiment. Taken with the retrospective Grabow brings us, this book
   provides a perspective on patterns that is completely absent from the
   other books in this series. Some of these, such as the foundations in
   economics, are there for the picking. To reap some of the other insights
   requires study that goes beyond casual reading, but such study is
   appropriate to the depth of insight it will afford, and you owe it to
   yourself to explore it. These insights are crucial for making patterns
   work in a practical way in a social setting.
   
   If you want to learn about patterns, and you want to start with an
   Alexandrian book, I think this is the one you start with. Get the big
   picture first, in the context of the underlying principles, and come
   back for the pattern details later in A Pattern Language, and for the
   artist's artistic exposition of his art in The Timeless Way of Building.



2. The Oregon Experiment comes from a time when Eugene, Oregon was a capital for social and community experiments in the US. It's a practical, brilliant, gentle, idealistic proposal, without peer in modern literature. There are a few papers on the experiment after twenty years, available on the web -- the experiment basically had the life bureaucratized out of it. But this book remains as a shining, solid proposal, which any participatory experiment should look over very closely.



3. The Oregon Experiment is one of a series of influential volumes on architecture and social design published by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues in the 1970s. While the most well-known volume in the series, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction, develops general principles for the design of social spaces at all scales, The Oregon Experiment applies those principles to a specific case: the campus of the University of Oregon.

   If you are looking for an example of a specific campus plan, however, you will not find it here. Central to Alexander's approach is the notion that communities should not create fixed master plans, but rather should develop a common pattern language, and then apply it organically, in a piecemeal fashion, as needs arise. The book talks as much about this process of planning as it does about individual construction projects. Whenever a need arises (expansion of a building, addition of a door, creation of a green) people consult their pattern language and build something to suit the space and satisfy the need. Because everyone follows the agreed-upon language, the new parts harmonize with those that already exist (or replace earlier, poorly-designed structures).

   If you have enjoyed studying Alexander's patterns in A Pattern Language, you will find here a collection of new ones that are specific to a university setting, including "University Population," "University Shape and Diameter," "Departments of 400," "Local Administration," "Classroom Distribution," and about a dozen more. Although he clearly draws on ideas from British universities in many cases, he unaccountably does not include one of the fundamental features of the British model, namely the residential college of 500 (or so) within the larger institution. (Although he does include aspects of this pattern under the heading "Small Student Unions.") As always, Alexander's pattern descriptions are clear, blunt, and thought-provoking.

   The question that most readers will want to have answered is, "Does all this really work?" When the volume was written, of course, the process was just getting under way, and so we cannot know from this book alone whether everything described was successful or has been sustained over the long term. From what I've seen of campus master planning in public universities, it often turns out in the end to have less to do with creating good educational environments than it does with kowtowing to the local chamber of commerce and lining the pockets of already-rich trustees. But just because something is difficult doesn't mean it shouldn't be made the goal. If Alexander or someone at the University of Oregon were to produce a sequel, "The Oregon Experiment 25 Years On," I'm sure it would meet with a warm reception.




4. As a software designer and as somebody who lives and works in buildings in cities, I find the ideas in some of Alexander's other books on architecture and design - The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language - very interesting and appealing. They are a brave attempt to point to a more human, community-oriented way of doing things.

   I had high hopes that The Oregon Experiment would describe a concrete example of whether these ideas worked when they were put into practice. It does nothing of the kind. It describes an interesting thought experiment in participatory design and tries to present this as a vindication of the Pattern Language concepts. But nowhere does it even mention whether the design it describes was ever actually implemented, much less whether it worked from the inhabitants' point of view.

   It is very easy for a design team to get carried away with what a great design they have on paper. I've done it loads of times. That enthusiasm tells us nothing about whether a design is actually going to be a success.

   I know Alexander later moved from academia and started trying to put his ideas into practice on actual building projects. A book on his real experiences and how well the original ideas stood up to the cold light of reality would be fascinating and important. The Oregon Experiment isn't that book.

2 comments about Scale Models: Houses of the 20th Century.

1. This is a GREAT book for LEGO enthusiasts, as there are TONS of great photos of interesting layouts, photos of the models, etc. This is a great resource ALSO because since these are already models, much of the geometry is already simplified, which makes building much easier. :-)



2. If you have ever had a hard time visualizing the way a floor plan would look in real life this book would be benificial. It is a well rounded collection of house models done by famous architects. This book will also help anyone who is trying to design a model house of their own.

1 comments about The Neighborhoods of Queens (Neighborhoods of New York City).

1. Great product for the price. A short history for each neighborhood is
   followed by nostalgic yesteryear and as it looks today photos of important areas or structures--lots of photos.
   Each neighborhood has a street map and as an appendix, each has a complete
   demographic review.

3 comments about Land Development Calculations: Interactive Tools and Techniques for Site Planning, Analysis and Design.

1. A bit dissapointed that there was very little targeted toward Retail, specifically lacking in the areas of shopping center and out parcel development... but the formulas were interesting, and the concepts that were explained... were done so in great detail.



2. "Land Development Calculations" provides an excellent and innovative strategy for working towards sustainable land use and development. The models for varying land development strategies can assist local government land use decision makers and planners as well as developers determine the carrying capacity of land within realistic thresholds. The accompanying spreadsheets for the development scenarios on the CD-ROM are extremely user friendly and do not place an undue burden on the user by requiring what may be hard to find or to collect data. All of the data required just is typical of what is necessary to make appropriate land development decisions. As a local government planner, I am working towards incorporating the information received from the models in to the zoning and development code as part of the approval process by using it to further assess suitability of the property for the purposes proposed (a zoning consideration required in accordance with the State of Georgia Zoning Procedures Act). I strongly encourage other land planners and developers to read "Land Development Calculations," because of its highly practical and very timely material.



3. This is a terrificaly valuable technical reference for practitioners who need an efficient method of performing land development calulations. The book and its companion set of spreadsheets enable users to answer two key questions: 1) how much can be built on a given piece of land; or 2) how much land is needed to accommodate a given use? The material is clearly written and well illustrated, especially a series of worksheets leading through the method. Another strength is its comprehensiveness and detail, including all major land-use and micro site conditions.

1 comments about The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality (The American Moment).

1. This book went through each decade and described how the times effected the development of the American City. There were numerous examples that painted a clear picture of what it was like to live during the time of prohibition, the depression, or the suburbanization of the 60's. Teaford makes the usually boring subject of history enjoyable!