No comments about The Dimensions of Parking.

4 comments about The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany.

1. In this masterful and original account the author takes the reader on a virtual tour de force examination of the way in which nature was changed, conquered, preserved, destroyed and manipulated in Germany between the time of Fredrick the Great and the present. The author notes that to "write about the shaping of the modern German landscape is to write about how modern Germany itself was shaped." It begins with the tale of the draining of the Oderburch, a great swamp on the river Oder from Oderberg to Lebus. This swamp along with others was progressively drained and settled in the 18th century. Colonists were brought in and the wolves were hunted to extinction. This was a frontier like any other and the author compares it to other conquests of nature in the New World and South Africa. It was a "conquest from barbarism". This use of science and technology to tame the wild beast of nature is as old as man itself but found a special expression in Germany.
   
   The next section of the book examines the taming of the Rhine river and the harnessing of it to agriculture and the state. The book takes the reader on a wonderful journey alongside the German engineers and statesmen and visionaries who tried the utmost to control flooding and build ports and canals such as Wilhelmshaven. Land reclamation followed. Once again people had to settle and colonize the new areas. The same was being done across Europe, for instance South of Rome where in the 1920s and 1930s colonists would be set to colonizing the Malarial swamps.
   
   But where once colonizing and reclamation were peaceful pursuits they eventually turned sinister with the advent of Nazism and the decision to reclaim the East for German settlers. The idea was that the `barbaric' Slavic peoples could be harnessed as well or removed from the swamps they were `indigenous' to. Propaganda saw them as growing out of the swamps themselves. The `dead space' of the Pripet marshes. Everywhere German `model villages' were designed to replace the `natural' villages that seethed with disease and closed spaces in the `east'.
   
   A brilliant book that weaves together so many topics and is hard to put down, the subject seems staid, but is fascinating.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



2. THE CONQUEST OF NATURE: WATER, LANDSCAPE, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN GERMANY is a recommended pick for any library strong in modern Western history in general and German history and culture in particular. Both college-level and general-interest lending collections will appreciate the fine reproductions of paintings, maps and photos which go into a survey linking culture, politic and environmental issues in German history to modern times. It's a key component of any comprehensive collection on German issues and background.



3. This is quite a book.
   
   There are a number of books on how the he U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has modified rivers like the Mississippi in the United States (with more or less success, witness Katrina). This is the first one I've seen on what was done in Northern Europe. The projects in Germany were monumental in scale, taking some 250 years to accomplish. This is part of what made Germany into a nation.
   
   It is quite interesting as it talks not only about what was done but about other aspects such as the health, econonic, cultural, and political aspects. The Nazi's for instance looked at the work done as proof of the natural superiority of the German people.
   
   With all of the success of the projects, the book at the end turns to the problems the efforts have caused: flooding, fish habitat destroyed. In essence all of the problems we are having with these same areas in the United States.



4. There are many fine environmental histories of North America but seemingly very few of Europe. Following a brief description of how the end of the Ice Age produced the sodden, water-filled plains of central and northern Germany, this book explores how man created the modern German landscape by straightening the Rhine River and "reclaiming" the southern coast of the North Sea and other watery regions. The maps are useful. Great stuff, I wish there were more books on the transformation of the European environment over the past 12,000 years.

No comments about Gentrification.

5 comments about The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry.

1. This book is insightful in detailing the relationship between land use and transit services -- and views the relationship from several perpectives. Case study examples clarify the "transit first" and the "land use first" approaches to urban growth. The writing style is engaging and clear, accurate and helpful to understanding of the many factors involved in the transit/land use dichotomy.



2. I've been very pleased with this book for its analysis of a variety of different city types and its recognition that different cities require different types of transit to really make public transit viable there. From Copenhagen's trains connecting downtown to densely populated "fingers" of growth to Ottawa's busways and Curitaba's extremely innovative and economic system, this book provides enough real life examples to see how transit can be tailored to fit any city, and vice versa.



3. You can't say enough about this excellent survey of modern transit. Expect this book to inspire you!



4. I read this book a few years ago and it opened my eyes forever. Instead of moaning, "What will we do about all of these cars?" I have framed the question, "What the h. is wrong with the United States?" Prior to reading this book, I had only the faintest ideas about what democratic transit planning would look like on a large scale. The answer, Switzerland!
   
   I was fascinated by the descriptions of actual, real life functioning public transportation in Singapore and Scandinavia. This Is REAL, People!
   
   Unfortunately, after reading this book, I have developed the understanding that until we get things right with democracy, we will not get right with transit in the US. As long as our local governments are puppets of real estate developers, we will build our transportation infrastructure to suit their need to maximize profits, rather than the needs of the people who have to live in the cities for centuries to come.



5. Cervero does an excellent job presenting each case study and its lessons with regard to urban transportation. He studies cities from the United State, Europe, Asia, and Latin America which makes the book especially valuable. He introduces and explains different types and categories of urban transportation alternatives and their respective benefits and drawbacks. Excellent book, worth reading.

1 comments about Pioneers of American Landscape Design (Professional Architecture).

1. Birnbaum and Karson have produced a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the specific individual contributions towards American landscape architecture. The encyclopedic entries are well written AND include additional references. WELL DONE.

No comments about Barcelona: The Urban Evolution of a Compact City.

No comments about A Better Way to Zone: Ten Principles to Create More Livable Cities.

3 comments about Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space (Writing Architecture).

1. The most enlightening chapter is "The Future of Space: Toward an Architecture of Invention". For that essay alone, buy or read this book. Ms Grosz problematizes philosophies with virtualities, logics, or spaces they have long overlooked. Moving away from a tired tradition of coherentism and rigor (phallocentric logocentrism), Aristotelian logic and argumentation, Ms. Grosz takes us on a journey through space and time, before or after space and time, and in between time and space or space and time (the interval). It constitutes a journey, as such, that won't soon be forgotten. Ms. Grosz offers insights such as the following:
   
   "Space itself, the very stuff of architectural reflection and production, requires and entails a mode of time, timeliness, or duration. Indeed, space must always involve at least two times, or perhaps two kinds of time. The first is the time of the emergence of space as such, a time before time and space, a temporalization/spatialization that precedes and renders the organization or emergence of space as such and time as such and thus emerges before a scientific understanding of a space-time continuum." (p. 110)
   
   Time, as such, is represented by the virtual (virtuality), "a concept that requires not only a time before time but also a time after time" (p. 111).
   
   Ms. Grosz's essays are informed by her expansive and extensive knowledge and erudition of Aristotelian logic, contact physics, maths, and postmodern philosophy.
   
   Her insights into the mysteries of space and time, the suchness of the now, the virtuality of the actuality or the potentiality, and the "hesitation" of durationality will have your head spinning as it's nodding in agreement.



2. Professor Grosz as done it again. In her latest work she as out done herself. Enjoy the read



3. Initially I was impressed with this book, it seemed to be well written and to raise some interesting questions concerning architectural ideas of the present and future. As the book progresses the author's rhetoric gets a bit thin, causually citing references that are never elaborated upon leaving many of her arguements baseless. If you suffer from the ability to develop your own questions concerning the future of architectural thought/theory, whether you are an architect or from the 'outside', buy this book. Otherwise find an author that can actual communicate an idea beyond an initial thought.

No comments about Pamphlet Architecture 26: Thirteen Projects for the Sheridan Expressway.

No comments about Did Someone Say Participate?: An Atlas of Spatial Practice.