No comments about Land Development, 10th Edition.

No comments about Planning the Twentieth-Century American City.

No comments about Architectural Theory: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870.

1 comments about Artificial Light: A Narrative Inquiry into the Nature of Abstraction, Immediacy, and Other Architectural Fictions.

1. An immersive and enjoyable exploration of the latent assumptions in contemporary architectural discourse, Artificial Light convincingly questions notions of experience as related to the `constructed realities' commonly touted by many architectural theorists. As one of the opening pages of the book states, "there are as many things as there are views of things," situating the dissection that is to follow. Playing against hauntingly beautiful photography woven throughout the text, Mitnick constructs layers of meaning through fluid and coherent writing that engages the reader with a gamut of performative styles, gaming with the medium to affect the message. Rather than concluding on some point of crisis, Artificial Light cuts a hole through the canvas and sidesteps the need for polemic; the nature of things has been opened to the multitude, and it is for the reader to determine.

5 comments about Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred.

1. This book makes the case for both traditional urbanism and new urbanism by laying the solid philosophical foundation that has been lacking up to now in writings in the field. Philip Bess takes the Aristotelian tradition running from Aristotle to the brilliant contemporary philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre and links this tradition to the practical necessities of building sustainable communities that create the optimal setting for human fulfillment. He establishes an objective and convincing basis to show how traditional urbanism and its "new urbanist" adaptations promote the common good in an age when that concept has almost vanished. Bess, in calm and measured tones, establishes a balanced and fulfilling world view as an alternative to a world currently fixated on private greed running amok in unfettered markets distorted by subsidies granted by governments commandeered by special interests. Bess not only shows us how to make places that we can love, he shows us that this art, almost lost in the modern world, is the way to an environmentally sustainable future that creates meaning and purpose in life. He reaches back to timeless traditions to show how we can transform our current world, complete with modern conveniences and cars, into a better place. This book is both practical and philosphical, and will appeal to thinking people, but not to those who just are looking for a "quick fix." This book, if read and understood by enough people, can transform the world.



2. Architecture is visual. In this book, the emphasis is on the abstract. As such, the subject and its presentation seem disconnected. Granted, the book has illustrations; however, they're generally tiny compared to what one normally sees in a presentation on a visual art. The text also contains numerous tiny footnotes throughout. These footnotes are distracting. The author makes numerous references other writers, coming across as someone who's collected a bunch of interesting quotes and wanted an excuse put them together in a book. It gives something of an intellectual stream of consciousness effect. I've read other books on architecture such as Tom Wolfe's From Our House to Bauhaus, Michael Rose's Ugly as Sin, and Lewis Mumford's Sticks and Stones, and got a lot of enjoyment and insight from them. I thought I'd really like this book but found it so boring and hard to read I gave up before finishing the first chapter.



3. Philip Bess (Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture) presents Till We Have Built Jerusalem, a scholarly examination of the relationship between traditional architecture, urbanism, and human flourishing, as well as the types of culture necessary to sustain traditional towns and city neighborhoods. Chapters analyze questionable intellectual assumptions of contemporary architecture, and reveals how the individualist philosophy of modern societies is physically expressed through suburban sprawl, to such an extent that it undercuts urbanism's ability to sustain itself. Till We Have Built Jerusalem concludes that the natural law tradition and communal religion can both provide the needed intellectual and spiritual depth to modern attempts to build new (and revive existing) towns and cities. Urban locales, at their best, help fulfill the human drive for order, beauty, and community, Bess argues, in this fascinating study of old versus new urbanism. Black-and-white and a few color illustrations add a visual touch to this persuasive manifesto of the common links between improving the human condition through better urban architecture and the bonds of shared religion.



4. In this interesting but highly abstract collection of essays, Bess tries to teach cultural and religious conservatives (and indeed, religious people of all political leanings) about the virtues of traditional urbanism and its 21st-century heir, the New Urbanist movement. Bess argues that traditional neighborhoods where churches and other civic institutions are the highest buildings ennoble us by teaching us what we should cherish; by contrast, in 20th-century suburban sprawl churches look no different from Wal-Marts.
   
   One of the best things about this book is its use of quotes. Some of my favorites:
   
   *"To value anything simply because it occurs, is in fact to worship success, like Quislings or men of Vichy." (quoting C.S. Lewis).
   
   *"If a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once upon this downward path, you never know when to stop. Many a man has dated his own ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time." (qutoing Thomas de Quincey)
   
   *"the gratification in climbing consists of the conquering of one's own inert heaviness for the purpose of attaining a high goal- an experience inevitably endowed with symbolic connotations. Climbing is a heroic, liberating act; and height spontaneously symbolizes things of high value." (quoting psychologist Rudolf Arnheim to explain why height and beauty often go together)
   
   *"It is not only insufferable arrogance to think that one can begin theologizing in sovereign disregard of history; it is also extremely uneconomical. It seems rather a waste of time to spend, say, five years working out a position, only to find that it has already been done by a Syrian monk in the fifth century. The very least that a knowledge of religious traditions has to offer is a catalogue of heresies for possible home use." (quoting Peter Berger)
   
   *"The utter failure to create any meaningful pedestrian environment (that is, a rewarding public realm} defines the heart of Atlanta today. Every bad idea in the service of contemporary urban design [has come] together [in Atlanta] with a public attitude that can be summed up as the outside doesn't matter." (quoting James Howard Kunstler)
   
   *And once from William Penn that he (wisely) criticizes: "The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God, but in cities little else but the works of men." As Bess points out, human endeavor, like the natural world, is infused with divine presence.
   
   One possible weakness: Because this is a collection of essays rather than a freestanding book, Bess doesn't engage defenders of the sprawl status quo as thoroughly as I would like.



5. If the following paraphrase is not too crude a summary of Philip Bess' brilliant synthesis in this book, the author believes that we all carry a kind of moral DNA within us which not only urges us not to murder but not to allow urban sprawl to devour our landscape and kill our authentic civic life. How ironic that we Americans hunger for the beauty of European small towns, for example, but don't realize that their "human scale" is related to ancient notions of what cities are for -- to make people good (i.e., excellent). This is not a political nor a polemical tract: Bess takes the reader into serious philosophical waters and his emphasis on virtues-based theories of human behavior mirrors the current work of leading philosophers and psychologists like Alasdair MacIntyre and Martin Seligman.

2 comments about Mixed-Use Development Handbook (Development Handbook series).

1. Excellent overview. If you're involved with Mixed-Use Development in any way, buy this book as a great reference! Shawn C, CCIM



2. 1. The book gives useful knowledge for beginners but if you have more than 2 years of industry experience you can forget it.
   
   2. Cases are limited to serveral and lack of Asian perspective.
   
   3. A great text book for new comers to real estate development.

No comments about Frameworks for Policy Analysis: Merging Text and Context.

No comments about Landscape Design: Promenades.

5 comments about Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide To Creating Open Space Networks.

1. Check out some of the final subdivision design parameters on page 87. While other reviewers might benefit from the author's justified concern for conserving open space--especially in communities where cookie-cutter style developers 'rule the Board', the end result for some of the plans in this work APPEARS to be large-lot American sprawl, with ecological considerations that don't go far enough. Perhaps Arendt's GROWING GREENER, which I've not seen, will get us closer(?)



2. What a concept! Rather than trying to get the most acreage per lot, make smaller lots with more shared open space. A must read for every developer, planning board, and zoning commition. Easy to follow examples show how to preserve historic and environmental features while adding to the value of the land that is developed.



3. If we developed land in the manner the author teaches, America would look so much nicer! A very common sense approach to maintain rural character in an area and stop sprawl from destroying your area. Every developer, planner, new home buyer, builder, conservationist and private citizen should read this and also buy the author's book, "Rural By Design".



4. Cheers for Randall G. Arendt, et al. For years my government agency has been fighting a loosing battle in Florida with unmanaged and unfettered urban growth. It seemed as though nothing could stem the tide of urban sprawl until two things happened. One was an election of a more centralist government and the other was the introduction of "designing for conservation" into our policy making levels. This concept was brought into clear focus by Arendt's book. The authors not only presented a practical and economically sound guide for growth that can benefit developers, but the reference can act as a mechanism to help preserve the environmental cohesiveness of any community. The policy makers in our community were so impressed with this book that fifteen (15) copies were purchased to be placed into the hands of influential politicians, developers and regulatory agencies.



5. As a land developer this book brought into focus the problems that haave been growing as more and more of the land in my area has been consumed, and we have less and less to develop. At first I thought it would be another environmental tirade against land development,but instead realised it was a very practical and economically sound guide for development that would benefit me and also help maintain the character of my community. Arendt's concern is for the environment and the preservation of open spaces and connective corridors of space and natural habitat between differing parcels of land in a given area. His solutions achieve these goals, but of special interest to me as a developer is that his solutions also mean no loss of density, reduced costs and higher land values. Excellent illustrations, easy to understand and worth the price many times over.

No comments about Builder's Guide to Drainage & Retaining Walls.