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.

No comments about Asmara: The Frozen City.

No comments about Classic Golf Hole Design: Using the Greatest Holes as Inspiration for Modern Courses.

3 comments about The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment.

1. Habraken is essential for understanding and practising contemporary architectural design. He started out his career pointing out the limitations of the then (and often still) prevailing design approach towards housing and large buildings, and proposing methods for systems design meant to allow several levels of control, and changing configurations over time (this was extremely influential, and all relevant contemporary building and systems design is heir to his work directly or indirectly). He then went on to explore and explain the underlying order for architectural/urban configurations, and in this book he explains the orders of 'Form' (which could also be called construction), 'Territory' (boundaries, control) and 'Understanding' (shared patterns, systems and types) that make built environments be what they are, illustrating everything with perfectly selected examples. If you know the examples, the beauty is in the way he makes the underlying orders coherent and understandable. And you will not know a few of the examples, so the book is also beautiful as a pointer for further studies.
   
   3 other smaller books by him that develop details, or follow implications:
   - Supports, An Alternative to Mass Housing';
   - Variations, The Systematic Design of Supports;
   - <---- this is where 'The Structure of the Ordinary' falls chronologically;
   - Palladio's Children
   all by Habraken, all essential.



2. I found this book to be both insightful and ultimately very influential as to my own thoughts on sustainable design, urban planning, and the contemporary values and accustomed comfort levels which we, the western societies of the world, have come to take for granted when we think about our built environment. I feel that this book should be read by both students and practitioners alike. It's lessons are far reaching and all too relavent.



3. Though well produced and well illustrated I found this book to be disapointing. I thought it woud be more overtly rigourous in its analysis. Instead it offers only personnal insights into the structure of ordinary enironments. The back cover says that the book is the result of years of 'design research', yet I could find little evidence of this research in the book. Some people may find these insights illumating, unfortunately I did not, and without formal research to back them up I found the book disappointing.

1 comments about Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited (Samuel and Althea Stroum Books) (Samuel and Althea Stroum Books).

1. Review by Tigran Hasic (Reproduced by permission from the Nordic Journal of Architectural Research)
   
   Just when you thought that what you are looking at is nothing more than another book on anti-sprawl in America, along comes Douglas Kelbaugh's new book "Repairing the American Metropolis". This refreshing work is written with formidable ease of style, recherché lucidity and academic strength, as well as many years of practical experience. In a nutshell, this book offers a completely new reconsideration of contemporary American architecture, design, planning and policy making, as well as ways how to revitalize and repair our cities. All of this evolves in a metropolitan sustainable vision where cities would be ecologically, socially and spatially acceptable again. Aristotle's axiom that `we come to the cities to live the good life' could not be more correct in the context of this book.
   
   Repairing the American Metropolis is a follow-up to the author's highly successful earlier book Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design. This earlier work, illustrated by a number of workshops and charrettes, is a tour-de-force about how we can develop community and create sustainable places in face of fragmented growth and development. Kelbaugh's work on charrettes has been cited and copied around the USA and abroad as a model for community design. The new book continues on the same line of thinking but lifts the whole discussion to an even higher intellectual level, but in an understandable and overwhelmingly logical and persuading manner.
   
   Backdrop for the whole discussion lies in the fact that America is becoming more and more a suburban nation, as portrayed and discussed in the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and Decline of American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck. With more than 50% of population living outside of the city, we are witnessing the breakdown of community and civic life, people-friendly neighbourhoods - cities as we used to know and love them.
   
   It is not surprising that Peter Calthorpe, one of the founders of New Urbanism in America is thinking on the same lines as Kelbaugh. Calthorpe and Kelbaugh wrote the national best seller in urban design in 1998 entitled "The Pedestrian Pocket Book", in which they have argued for walkable neighborhoods, pedestrian communities and transit oriented development (T.O.D.) as well as for bringing back the sense and quality of place. They are not pushing for the disappearance of the automobile but rather for designing livable communities and repairing the old ones, while realizing that too much traffic not only destroys the urban quality of place but also damages the occupant of the car. Many of these ideas were later incorporated into New Urbanism. Along with Andres Duany, Peter Calthorpe and others, Kelbaugh has been one of the pioneers of this movement.
   
   The discourse in this book evolves around the notions of community, sustainability and the role of design. The book is divided into five sections that flow tightly and move all the time from the general to the specific and backwards: suburban sprawl, Critical Regionalism, typology, New Urbanism and public policy. Kelbaugh presents the case of the high costs of sprawl, how Critical Regionalism can be an answer to the growing forces of homogenization, commodification and banalization. It also addresses the importance of architectural typology to sustainable urbanism. He blends all chapters in a historical, architectural, design, planning, policy and sociological discussion that flows together well and that can be read well as separate parts as well as one single work.
   
   Andres Duany, one of the founders and spiritual leaders of the New Urbanism movement could not put it more correctly when he says that this book is "The most sophisticated critical presentation of the New Urbanism to be found anywhere." What he was actually referring to is a highlight of the whole book, Chapter 4, New Urbanism vs. Everyday Urbanism and Post Urbanism. Much less critical and openly assertive than some other proponents of New Urbanism, Kelbaugh nonetheless gives a sophisticated and strong critique of CIAM and failures of The Modernist architecture and planning principles that destroyed good urbanism and created zoned and fragmented communities dominated by vehicles and inhumane urban design. That notwithstanding, he comes up with a brilliant critique on New Urbanism, restating its principles in a highly intelligent way. At the same time he defends New Urbanism. Vicious attacks on modern architecture as failing on multiple levels - human, aesthetic, social and environmental - are not to be found here, but rather a lucid and realistic analysis of the state of the city.
   
   It is unquestionable (even the worst critics of New Urbanism cannot deny it) that the movement has revived enthusiasm for the city's potential and possibilities. It represents the antithesis (despite occasional lapses into gated communities) of community isolation, alienation, and spatial fragmentation, all in favor of livable places. Finally in Chapter 4 he presents the Three Paradigms: New Urbanism, Everyday Urbanism and Post Urbanism. Basically what Kelbaugh argues very convincingly is that New Urbanism ("idealistic, civic and structuralist") is not the "only game in town". There are "competing emerging urbanist paradigms" that have gained momentum at this moment in history. Aside from New Urbanism and the conventional suburban development that continues to enwrap the American metropolis - Everyday Urbanism ("informal, populist and non-structuralist") and Post Urbanism ("heterotopian, sensational and structuralist") exist in parallel, side by side.
   
   In the final chapter (Chapter 5) on Public Policy, Kelbaugh sets out a new metropolitan agenda where he points to a need for new and reformulated public policy. He presents seven policy initiatives for immediate action in America: (1) Get development priorities right; (2) Get automobiles under control; (3) Get transit on track; (4) Get planning; (5) Get more granny flats and live-work units (6) Get funding and taxing right; and (7) Get governance right. These are ready-made nostrums that, if adopted, would stop urban sprawl, create environmentally sustainable cities, public life, calm traffic and regenerate the urban, social and cultural realm. Instead he sees them as `enabling strategies' that could help local government to address problems and seize opportunities.
   
   The American project since WWII has been to opt for mobility and freedom while the European ideal has been place and urbanity. Unfortunately the European suburbs are not testimony to that fact. Although this book has not focused on the international context, it still has relevance to the European situation. The European metropolis will also have to go through a number of revitalizations (especially in the suburbs) as a consequence of all the eradications and negative changes left behind after the WWII. Kelbaugh's book represents an important primer in that respect.
   
   At times written in an overwhelmingly provocative, compelling and convincing style, this book reminds one of the colossal and influential work on urbanism and town planning, Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Kelbaugh's reasoning and ideas places him in the forefront of the current American and international urbanism debate. Repairing the American Metropolis is certainly one of the finest books on the subject that has come out in the last decade, written in a crisp, readable style accessible to architects, planners, urban designers, decision makers, real estate developers and laypersons alike.
   
   Douglas Kelbaugh is the Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and former principal in Kelbaugh, Calthorpe & Associates in Seattle and in Kelbaugh & Lee in Princeton, New Jersey. In the foreword, Alex Krieger of Harvard Graduate School of Design describes it as "a fundamental reconsideration of contemporary American architecture and planning." Professor Kelbaugh's, in many respects dialectical work shows a person who understands today's realities, the constraints that we are faced with in our cities, options we have, and the need to proactively return to the authentic qualities of community and dwelling. He sums it up well by saying at the end of his book:
   
   These changes and reforms are essential because the alternatives are stark, and the consequences of inaction are apocalyptic. It will be worth both our grittiest and noblest efforts. And as we repair and revitalize our architecture, neighbourhoods, cities, and regions, we may build common places for ourselves along the way.

5 comments about The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town.

1. Andrew Ross's, The Celebration Chronicles, is a scholarly interpretation of the neo-traditional ideal and how it manifests itself with the development of a Florida community. From the onset of the book, it appears as if Celebration is everything that the Disney executives had envisioned and everything that the residents had hoped ---- but is it?

   Ross, however, delays peeling back the town's veneer and instead takes us on a sight seeing tour of Celebration ---- along the way we can see palm-lined promenades, a beautiful lake, neo-traditional homes and stately designed commercial/residential buildings. The author, respectfully, gives deference to the key architectural styles ---- Anglo-Caribbean, Low Country and St Augustine. Ultimately, our travels along Market St take us to the town square and we feel somehow that Disney has delivered.

   Then the serious questions begin and the reader becomes privy to a host of controversies ---- shoddy home construction, the prohibitive cost to live in Celebration, conflicts over the educational agenda of the K-12 school and a questionable commitment to social and ethnic diversity.
   
   Ross's observations may reflect an intellectual detachment. But the reader will discover that the book has its share of levity and amusing anecdotes. He notes, for example, the following ---- rumors of gypsies taking up residence and a resident heard to say, "What we need are a few drunks around this town."

   This book is a serious study. Forewarned ---- you won't find the vanity-fair critiques so pervasive in glossy journals and travel tabloids. What you will find, though, are the author's lengthy observations that attempt to explain all the factors ---- both positive and negative ---- that impact life in the community of Celebration. Eventually the book evolves into a valuable lesson on urban history and social science. I, as a reader, found the process of getting to this eventuality fulfilling and I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in these topics.




2. Reading this book was like watching paint dry....I moved to Celebration in 1998. At first I was charmed by the Disney connection, distinctive house designs (for florida anyway), the nice, well kept streets.

   Fast forward several years....

   Celebration now has a -- TERRIBLE -- reputation in the central florida area for being snotty and elitist. It's is a shame what has become of Celebration. Someone should write a book about that.




3. I had the chance to visit Celebration this spring on a trip to WDW. I found the book interesting and inciteful in learning more about this community. I believe readers will get a very well written account of life in this community at its inception as well as Ross's take on this community. A good read.



4. What a piece of liberal trash! My five year old found it useful to press flowers.



5. I read this book after reading Celebration, USA by Douglas Franz and Catherine Collins. The Celebration Chronicles is not worth the money. Mr. Ross has written a "scholarly" work which manages to examine Celebration at arm's length. Mr. Ross obtaining an apartment in Celebration, a community he clearly has no vested interest in, does not qualify as being a truly involved resident of a newly created, struggling community. Franz and Collins give much better insight, mostly because they have invested in a home and are truly involved in the growth of the community.

   For a historical, sanitary view, choose Ross' account.

No comments about Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory.

No comments about Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.

1 comments about Reshaping the Built Environment: Ecology, Ethics, and Economics.

1. A comprehensive analysis and commentary on America's physical and social infrastructure, Kilbert has compiled an impressive list of authors/environmental policy specialists. They speak to issues as seemingly diverse as the moral burdens being placed on future generations by short sighted environmental policy to practical solutions ( the Brownfields initiative)for reusing old industrial land in the inner city--a valuable text for anyone involved in shaping public policy in the near future.

2 comments about Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities.

1. A decade or so ago the authors of Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities decided to bring the art of collaboration to the field of economic development. They even called their new firm "Collaborative Economics, Inc." to the amusement of many hard core industrial recruiters. This book is a result of their experience coupled with a sense of history and an idealism that is rare to find in a profession built on the principals of competitiveness.

   The numerous examples of collaboration described by the authors go significantly beyond the details of the efforts. They are carefully woven into the Nation's revolutionary history by appropriate quotations and references to the role of collaboration as promoted by the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as well as other notables in the "American Experience."

   In addition, the illustrative examples drawn from the author's extensive and practical field experience working with collaborative efforts in all sections of the Nation over the past ten years are made particularly useful by describing not only results but discussing in detail successful collaborative processes that can be endlessly replicated in a variety of settings as well.

   Due credit is given throughout the book to their mentor, John W. Gardner, through carefully selected and placed quotations and references. For example, Gardner is quoted in the introduction as saying "...the crucial task is to design a society (and institutions) capable of continuous change, continuous renewal and continuous responsiveness," a theme that runs throughout the book.

   Henton, Melville and Walesh are optimistic about the future of collaboration and provide compelling evidence of its value in continuing the process of "dialog" which is the heart of the "American Experience." This book will be useful to anyone seeking to improve his or her community through collaboration. It will also be interesting for those with a more philosophic interest in the subject. It might even be worth the attention of hard core industrial recruiters.




2. In Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy (1997), the authors of Civic Revolutionaries identified a new type of leadership that has been emerging in regions that have been in the forefront of dealing with the problems and opportunities brought about by the new economy. They called these leaders "civic entrepreneurs." In Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities, the authors have given us a compelling reason why this leadership model is essential in enabling regions to compete and prosper in the new economy.
   By analyzing the complex problems that regions are confronted with today through the lens of the Federalist Papers and the debates between and among our nation's founders, they paint a picture that clearly demonstrates that traditional leadership is no more adequate today than it was in 1776. The authors have brilliantly made their case for regional stewardship taking the place of the traditional, top-down, command and control leadership that still persists in myriad communities throughout the United States. By focusing on the many tensions that exist within regions, such as the conflict between trust and accountability; change and continuity; individual rights and community, they leave little doubt that times have changed and the our concept of leadership must change as well.
   I would recommend this book to anyone that is frustrated with the gridlock and inertia that still exists in many regions. A solution is at hand and it's called regional stewardship.