No comments about Urban Design (Wicazo Sa Review).

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 Statewide Wetlands Strategies.

No comments about Robert Saliba: Beirut City Center Recovery.

1 comments about Ethics and Urban Design: Culture, Form, and Environment.

1. Architictural Designing and urban desig

3 comments about Phoenix in Perspective: Reflections on Developing the Desert.

1. Its hard to take Grady Gammage seriouly in this book. As a real estate lawyer, he has done little else besides acting as state cheerleader for the development industries.

   While providing a pretty good history lesson on the city of Phoenix (thus the one star), this book does little but glorify and exaggerate the contributions the developement industry has had on the growth and prosperity of the Valley of the Sun (he credits the low-cost housing industry on the population boom...oh yeah...and air conditioning).

   He discounts the notions of "sprawl" and blames any negative aspects on Phoenix's growth to market demand and a wonderful climate. He finds a way to absolve the develpment industry from any of the poor planning, tract housing, and characterless suburbs that blanket the Sonoran landscape.

   While agreeing that there will someday be a limit to how large Phoenix and its outlying suburbs can get, he sees little use for any type of growth management and describes growth boundaries as "draconian." Portland is proof enough that growth boundaries do in fact work, and that they are hardly "draconian."

   Gammage's solution to growth issues in Phoenix relates to water supply. Yet he fails to see that dealing with growth management via the water supply is like realizing that its time to go on a diet once you've already reached 400 pounds. By that time its too late. How do you tell a city of 5 million that the water supply has dried up, and now its time to start conserving....or limiting population? If growth boundaries are draconian, how does Gammage describe stopping growth because of a lack of water?

   This book offers a neat history lesson on the Valley of the Sun, but outside of that, it offers little in the form of solutions to Phoenix's problems related to growth, pollution, traffic and its now characterless landscape. I'd give it a half star if I could.




2. This is truly a disappointing and shocking book; and, for that reason, a must read in any city where residents want to stop or at least curtail the destruction of their community by developers whose only motive is greed.

   Grady Gammage Jr. is the son of one of Arizona's great families; Gammage auditorium at Arizona State University, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, honors decades of contributions by his family. Instead of community service, he became a wealthy lawyer for developers and was instrumental in creating the urban blight he so skillfully outlines in this book.

   A hundred years ago, Phoenix was the smallest of the four major Southwestern cities (the others are Tucson, Albuquerque and El Paso). Now it is the largest, and is growing by an acre of new homes per hour. At that rate, as Gammage notes, growth can continue uninterrupted for another 672 years.

   What is the new Phoenix? In Gammage's words, "A small narrow lot, a relatively large house, and a two- or three-car garage combine to produce neighborhoods with a different feel than those of even ten years ago. Houses seem squeezed together by non-existent side yards. Garage doors, lined up to a mandatory setback line, become the dominant feature of the streetscape. Front yards are shallower, with less grass . . . the desert is covered by acres of concrete tile."

   Everything is geared to growth, at the lowest possible cost to developers. When the first Interstate freeway was built through Phoenix in the 1960's, it went below ground in elite neighborhoods and then soared to 25 feet above ground in low income areas. The elevated portion was often called "our Berlin Wall" and it destroyed poorer neighborhoods, providing cheap land for "slum clearance" and industrial space. No interchange was ever built to serve Guadaloupe, a low-income Yaqui village on the freeway; but, when a developer was appointed to the highway commission, bulldozers were at work within six months building an interchange for his speculative subdivision.

   Obviously, as an attorney for developers, Gammage doesn't highlight problems. Yet, two out of three new residents to Arizona leave the state within five years. The Phoenix downtown crime rate is five times the national average. Arizona has the highest percentage of children without adequate medical care of any state, including Texas. It has the second-highest high school dropout rate. Believe it or not, here in the Sonoran Desert, it's against the law to grow sagebrush in your front yard.

   It's what makes this book so worth reading. It's a lesson in every sweet-talkin' word that you'll ever hear from developers and their lawyers. Read it in conjunction with `The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs, often regarded as one of the great urban thinkers of the past 40 years. This book clearly and proudly offers the opposite of everything Jacobs advocates.

   For Phoenix residents, it's a chilling account of change from "the city that Los Angeles wishes it could be" into a mass of urban sprawl that even LA wouldn't tolerate. Gammage does an excellent job; he is articulate, knowledgeable and one of the best lawyers developers can hire. As one of the local asphalt companies proudly says on its billboards, "We really lay it on thick." So does Gammage.

   For outsiders, it explains why two of every three newcomers flee within five years, most within a year. Read it, then decide if you're safe to assume in your city, "It can't happen here."




3. Grady Gammage provides readers with an accurate and insightful account of the development of the Phoenix metropolitan area. More important his book presents a sensible review of the problems of urbanization and suburban growth. Most important it avoids uninformed theories, irrelevant Utopian visions, or public action action that has neither political support nor financial justification.

No comments about The Grow Home.

No comments about Open City: Alphabet City 6.

5 comments about Site Engineering for Landscape Architects.

1. I bought this book to help me better understand how to do grading, evaluate contours, etc. All well and good. I begin doing the problems at the end of a chapter, and there is no answer key anywhere in the book. Can't find any reference to answers anywhere.
   
   I would have rated the book higher but for this little issue.



2. I am a first-year BLA student, and this text is required for an introductory course in site grading and drainage. This book is very difficult for me to read and understand. Descriptions of calculations are very poorly presented in paragraph narrative, which is mind-numbing to read and comprehend. If the calculations were presented in a step-by-step format, like a math text, they would be dramatically more clear and understandable. I agree with a previous reviewer, as well, that the layout is dysfunctional because the text and corresponding graphics are not on facing pages. This problem is particularly annoying, considering that landscape architecture is a design profession that emphasizes legibility in graphics and presentation material. I would welcome anyone's recommendations for a text that explains this subject in a more helpful way.



3. Site Engineering is a difficult subject for many landscape students and designers, yet it is a very important aspect of landscape architecture. As a landscape architect, you probably do not have to produce a grading plan (it can be done by a civil engineer), but you do need to have some basic site engineering knowledge to be able to coordinate your work with civil and other consultants. You do need to be able to read and visualize an ALTA survey map, or a grading plan; you do need to be able to understand what a concave or convex landform is, what a swale or ridge is, how to read contour or spot elevations, etc.
   
   "Site Engineering for Landscape Architects" will give you a very comprehensive knowledge of site engineering. It covers contours and form (constructing a section, contour signature and landform, characteristic of contour lines), interpolation and slope, grading constraints, grading design and process, earthwork, grading landform and architecture, storm water management, the methods to determine the rates and volumes of storm water runoff, natural resources conservation services, required detention storage, designing and sizing storm water management system, horizontal road alignment, vertical road alignment, and various case studies. It is so comprehensive that you can probably do a civil engineer's work after your read it. My suggestion is to buy this book, and look through it to have a general idea of what it covers and know where to find the information when you need it later. You can also look through the portions that you already know and focus on reading the portions that you are not very familiar with and improve your site engineering knowledge.
   
   "Site Engineering for Landscape Architects" has 352 pages and many line drawings and interior black-and-white photos. It is a great site engineering reference book for architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and engineers.
   
   Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA
   
   



4. I was a bit tentative when I started to use this text. The book has some minor editing problems, but if your desire is to really understand site design with an emphasis on drainage and grading plan design this text does the trick and does it well. I would recommend this book to any Jr. land development designer/engineer as a must have reference.



5. This is a great book to have on your shelf. Kept referring to it for my Site Technology classes and I know I'll be referring to it in the future. I found it very helpful and clearly written. Would highly recommend it.

No comments about Gardens, City Life, and Culture: A World Tour (Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Garden History).