Books on New Urbanism?
July 9, 2008 10:07 AM   Subscribe

I'd like to find out more about New Urbanism. What are some good books to read?
posted by mekanic to Society & Culture (13 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
What specifically about New Urbanism? The actual movement, or just the concepts?
posted by waylaid at 10:16 AM on July 9, 2008


First off,
Jane jacobs' 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities" lays down some of the ideas and concepts in the movement.

There's a couple more books [at work now, my notes on the books are at home] that provide example of new urbanism: I'll post them later if they're not already by then.
posted by fizzix at 10:23 AM on July 9, 2008


And what books have you read already?

The actual movement, or just the concepts?

Or just built examples?
posted by LionIndex at 10:23 AM on July 9, 2008


Visions for a New American Dream: Process, Principles, & an Ordinance to Plan & Design Small Communities was one book I used when studying New Urbanism in school. It's pretty good.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 10:41 AM on July 9, 2008


Seconding The Death and Life of Great American Cities. If you read nothing else ever about urban planning, read this book.

Also, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape and Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century by James Howard Kunstler aren't directly about new urbanism but provide a firm groundwork for the movement's ideas. Some say Kunstler's a little ranty, and he's gotten a little tinfoil-hattish with his recent peak oil stuff, but these books are solid.
posted by desjardins at 11:00 AM on July 9, 2008


Ray Suarez's "The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration" ( alittle dated, since it was written in 1999, and the writing off of Washington, DC is mildly amusing now) follow in desjardins example.

nthing Death and Life of Great American Cities.
posted by waylaid at 11:19 AM on July 9, 2008


Oh man, I was in your exact place last year.

Charter of the New Urbanism is a good start, if a little dense.
Suburban Nation is a great 101 book by Andres Duany, one of the modern demi-gods of New Urbanism

If you're interested in development period, try Witold Rybczinski's
Last Harvest: From Cornfield to New Town: Real Estate Development from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-First Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway
posted by GilloD at 11:40 AM on July 9, 2008


New Urbanism.org and Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU.org), where you can find the Charter of the New Urbanism, are good places to start.

While I agree that Jacobs' Death and Life ... is an important critique of late modernist urban planning, one could also read it more broadly as a critique of rational planning (cf. The Truman Show) and subsequently, a preemptive refutation of New Urbanism as well.

Nonetheless, Death and Life ..., along with Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte, Collage City by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter are just a few of the participants questioning the legitimacy of modern urban planning in the 60s and 70s. They established the essential principles of the New Urbanism movement.

There is little need to seek out Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Katz; they will become, as you explore the subject, unavoidable.
posted by xod at 1:20 PM on July 9, 2008


Response by poster: What specifically about New Urbanism? The actual movement, or just the concepts?

I know nothing about it now, so I guess I'd like to start by knowing more about the concepts. I figured there must be a few foundational type books that would get me going.

Thanks for all the answers so far.
posted by mekanic at 1:36 PM on July 9, 2008


How East New York Became a Ghetto by Walter Thabit
posted by mattbucher at 2:25 PM on July 9, 2008


These are all pretty great choices. I recommend the Kunstler books, because they tie in a lot of other ideas, serve as a great introduction and are very chatty and readable.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 2:53 PM on July 9, 2008


Perhaps more broadly answering the question than the excellent suggestions above, I'd also suggest Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn" and Robert Caro's "Power Broker", the astonishing biography of Robert Moses. The latter, in particular, is an exceptional pairing with "Life and Death".
posted by anildash at 10:02 PM on July 10, 2008


Response by poster: In case anyone else finds this thread: Duany Plater-Zybek & Co.'s New Urbanism reading list.
posted by mekanic at 8:42 PM on July 21, 2008


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