3 comments about Land Development Calculations: Interactive Tools and Techniques for Site Planning, Analysis and Design.

1. A bit dissapointed that there was very little targeted toward Retail, specifically lacking in the areas of shopping center and out parcel development... but the formulas were interesting, and the concepts that were explained... were done so in great detail.



2. "Land Development Calculations" provides an excellent and innovative strategy for working towards sustainable land use and development. The models for varying land development strategies can assist local government land use decision makers and planners as well as developers determine the carrying capacity of land within realistic thresholds. The accompanying spreadsheets for the development scenarios on the CD-ROM are extremely user friendly and do not place an undue burden on the user by requiring what may be hard to find or to collect data. All of the data required just is typical of what is necessary to make appropriate land development decisions. As a local government planner, I am working towards incorporating the information received from the models in to the zoning and development code as part of the approval process by using it to further assess suitability of the property for the purposes proposed (a zoning consideration required in accordance with the State of Georgia Zoning Procedures Act). I strongly encourage other land planners and developers to read "Land Development Calculations," because of its highly practical and very timely material.



3. This is a terrificaly valuable technical reference for practitioners who need an efficient method of performing land development calulations. The book and its companion set of spreadsheets enable users to answer two key questions: 1) how much can be built on a given piece of land; or 2) how much land is needed to accommodate a given use? The material is clearly written and well illustrated, especially a series of worksheets leading through the method. Another strength is its comprehensiveness and detail, including all major land-use and micro site conditions.

No comments about Álamos, Sonora: Architecture and Urbanism in the Dry Tropics (Southwest Center Series).

No comments about Measuring Landscapes: A Planner's Handbook.

1 comments about The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design.

1. THE ART OF PLACEMAKING: INTERPRETING COMMUNITY THROUGH PUBLIC ART AND URBAN DESIGN is a pick for any college-level art or urban issues library and for professionals interested in public art and urban affairs. It's an exploration of works within the public imagination and explores trends in public art, from 'mural towns' and street furniture to public areas arts, documenting two decades of public arts projects from around the country. Color photos throughout feature the projects while descriptions survey interactions with public agencies, officials, and decision-makers in the process of bringing art into the public eye and making design choices.

No comments about Spaces of Global Cultures: Architecture, Urbanism, Identity (Architext Series).

1 comments about Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal.

1. This book was a disappointment for me. As one who has appreciated Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With Commentaries and Human Scale I was not expecting so much fine print and examples, even through grouped into the following five categories, struck me as kludgy:
   
   Utility
   Citizenship
   Rural
   Identity
   Urban
   
   My notes:
   
   + Imagination alone can work miracles in the absence of resources.
   
   + Worlds of planning, commerce, culture, technology, and politics are disconnected BUT the authors see a massive shift emergent toward participatory culture. I am reminded of Paul Hawkin's Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World and Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace.
   
   + There are a lot of buzzwords among the fine print, such as creative engagement, adaptive transformation, etcetera. This is where I begin to think this has crossed the line toward kludge.
   
   + I am *very* impressed with the small section that focuses on children play power, connecting a merry-go-round to pump water to a gravity storage container.
   
   + Page 17: What many of these strategies shared was the principle of putting information clearly in the public domain and drawing togetyher a debate between a public, political and professional audience to unlock different perspectives and produce different solutions. I am reminded of Jim Rough's brilliant work Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
   
   + Art in public spaces inspires new forms of social networks. Rivers can have "Save My River Chapters" all along its path, I am reminded of the Salmon Nation the future-oriented denizens of Eco-topia have put into place.
   
   The book does downhill from there, in part because the small print is annoying, in part because while the photos are truly beautiful, this book does not convey what the Germans call "the feeling in the fingertips."
   
   I am however very impressed toward the end when the book talks about OASIS (Open Accessible Space Information System) and the discussion the authors offer of how training children and citizens to map their neighborhoods at the sapling level in unleashing enormous stores of energy. I am especially impressed by a map on page 158 that shows "Desireable Places to Plant a Tree." THIS IS PERFECT. Now imagine a Global Range of Gifts table at the sapling and ceramic refrigerator level for the whole planet, so the 80% of the individuals that do not do planned giving can give a sapling or a cell phone or a month's worth of medicine. I this coming and pray it will arrive sooner.
   
   The book re-engaged me at the end where there is a superb discussion of how we should plan neighborhoods with running water so that the poor can upgrade as they improve their condition, rather than vacating. Grow wealth locally.
   
   This book is offered at a very fair price and on that basis am taking it up to four stars instead of three. If you love this topic, this is book by two people who care, offered by a publisher who has the integrity to price it affordably.
   
   I read this book with A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World and The Porto Alegre Alternative: Direct Democracy in Action (IIRE (International Institute for Resear) and in a fascinating way all three hung together--Civilization of Love ends by pointing out that the future Church is going to comprised of young urban poor; and the Porto Alegre book, an edited work, ends compellingly by saying that we should not have to choose between statism and the market, it is possible to put everyone's eyes on the whole of the budget, and dramatically redirect how our tax dollars are spent. I agree, but not in 2008. That just became another lost epoch. See my review of Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate and of course Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It.
   
   With my last remaining link, I recommend All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents).

No comments about Global Cities: Cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Digital Age (New Directions in International Studies).

No comments about What Time is this Place?.

1 comments about The Art of City Making.

1. If you are looking for a check list or the do's and don'ts on how to become a better city, this book is not for you. In a way Landry is more of an urban psychiatrist who's challenging cities and their inhabitants to make up their own minds on how to become a better urban society. The book is chock full of examples, stories and insights on the matter (hence the size) which a well informed Landry uses to picture the bigger and positive image without being pushy about anything, although the 'being creative' gets a bit repeative after a while. All in all the book is an easy to read and feel good story about cities that want or should want to be a good city.

5 comments about A Field Guide to Sprawl.

1. The numerous color aerial photos in this book do a wonderful job of putting US development patterns into a whole new perspective. This isn't intended to be the end all be all of commentary about sprawl. For that, there are plenty of other great books that emphasize analysis and critique rather than a visual approach (A Better Way to Live is an example of a terrific book in the former category). This book is a great introduction to the different kinds of sprawl and what they look like. Sure, Dolores Hayden puts a fairly cynical touch on what commentary there is, but when you see the pictures of how developers have ruined our open spaces, you'll understand why. In short, a great little book that achieves its purpose very well.



2. Small coffee-table format picture book. There is a 10-page introduction, which is excellent, then 51 vocabulary terms. Each vocab term is 2 pages - one page is an aerial example picture, the facing page is text describing the term. The terms are mostly pejorative (slang) and are critical of certain types of development. This is not "new" stuff many of these terms and criticisms go back to the 1940s. While some of the terms are obvious (strip malls, McMansions) much of it is not obvious and opens a whole new way of seeing why certain things are laid out the way they are. More so, it helps to predict how future development will happen based on current development patterns. This book is a layman's guide to development criticism. Should be required reading for all who live in a developing community.



3. The book arrived ahead of schedule and was in great condition



4. The book is very simple and somewhat boring. I looked through the thing in less than an hour and now it's stuck in the closet. It does have some good aerial photos, but only a few. I was hoping the book would be a coffee table book for people to look through when they are over but it's now in the closet for who knows how long. It looks too much like an encyclopedia than a coffee table book in my opinion. The text isn't very well thought out either. Believe me, I'm an Urban Planner and so I'm interested in this stuff and have read a lot about sprawl, but this book just doesn't do it for me.



5. I agree with both the positive and negative reviews: I loved the pictures (as did the positive reviews)- they definitely gave me a better feel for concepts like "pods" that I am used to seeing from ground level. But I also think that some of Hayden's language was unclear, needlessly polemical, or both. For example, she writes that ducks (buildings that serve as advertisements) "are always out of context and do little to unify neighborhoods." But what does it mean for a building to be "out of context"? How does a cheese shop "unify a neighborhood", whether it is ugly or pretty? Also, Hayden's points sometimes have little to do with sprawl- for example, she has an entry on "Export Garbage" but she does not explain why she thinks suburbs generate more garbage than cities.
   
   But on balance I liked this book, mainly because she spends only a paragraph or two on each concept, so even the text entries I would have written differently did not take up a lot of my time.