Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance ReviewThis large format tome is truly magnificent and pays glowing tribute due to this most important visionary architect. The author, Mark Wilson and photographer, Joel Pulatti have given a warm insight to Maybeck's life and times. It even answers the century old question, did Maybeck ever meet Frank Lloyd Wright?Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance Overview
The work of Bernard Maybeck has influenced generations of architects. His landmark buildings include the Palace of Fine Arts and First Church of Christ, Scientist. His emphasis on an open use of natural materials marks him as a pioneer in sustainable architecture, or "green design." Maybeck's work achieves that delicate balance between historicism and modernism, and his buildings are still in use throughout several states on the West Coast and the Midwest. This book includes more than two dozen Maybeck buildings that have never been photographed in color in any other book, as well as several of his buildings that were never documented before.

Architect of Elegance not only encompasses his most memorable works but also includes letters and drawings from the family archives never before seen by the general public. The foreward is written by Maybeck's granddaugther, Cherry Maybeck Nittler. Author Mark Wilson's 22-year friendship with Bernard Maybeck's daughter-in-law, Jacomena Maybeck, gave him unique insights into the life and work of one of America's most important architects.

Mark Anthony Wilson has a BA in History and an MA in History and Media. He teaches Art andArchitecture at UC-Berkeley Extension and Santa Rosa Junior College. His articles have appeared inU.S. newspapers, and he has authored Julia Morgan: Architect of Beauty (Gibbs Smith, 2007). He hasbeen writing and teaching about Bernard Maybeck for 35 years.

Celebrating one of San Francisco/Berkeley's most iconic architects.


Want to learn more information about Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism ReviewArchitectural photographer Carla Breeze has focussed her camera on the best seventy-five Art Deco buildings across the Nation and produced a glorious book of color photos that perfectly captures the style. I really liked this book because she concentrates on the architectural detail of each building (with 450 photos) and in many cases, when this detail is on the outside, it is just not viewable from the ground.
The introduction has an interesting eighteen-page photo section dealing with materials: metal, concrete, terra cotta, mosaic, glass, wood and stone. I found this very useful when looking at the images. Each building starts on the spread (though some have more pages) with a street address and some background text and captions for the photos. The elegant layout does not interfere with the wonderful buildings (a tip of the hat to book designer Robert Wiser). Could anyone take a better photo of the stunning Niagara Mohawk Power headquarters in Syracuse on page seventy-three, I doubt it.
To complement this lovely book have a look at Rediscovering Art Deco USA: A Nationwide Tour of Architectural Delights by Barbara Capitman, Michael Kinerk and Dennis Wilhelm, a methodical nationwide survey, though it concentrates on commercial buildings rather than houses. If you are Deco spotting on the road leave a space in the glove compartment for David Gebhard's excellent The National Trust Guide to Art Deco in America (Preservation Press) if it's not in this book then most likely it's not worth looking at.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism Overview
A lavishly illustrated survey of American Art Deco architecture.
Art deco architecture flourished in large cities and small towns throughout America in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the best examples office buildings, movie theaters, hotels, and churches are still in use. Deco architects, artists, and designers drew on European styles but were most committed to a style that grew organically, as they saw it, from their native soil. Two themes bound Deco buildings and their decorative schemes together: a regional pride that tied buildings to their specific locales and functions, and a growing national symbolism that asserted the buildings' identity as uniquely, independently American. American Art Deco features description sand over 500 color photographs of seventy-five lavish and innovatively designed buildings across the country that have been preserved both outside and in, giving the full scope of this beloved, exciting style.

Want to learn more information about American Art Deco: Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide ReviewI think 'Drawing and Designing with Confidence' is an excellent book, especially for those students who are beginning with architecture and landscape architecture, and want more help with their budding abilities. It focuses largely on technique and fundamentals, which is a good basis to quality drafting and drawing, and ultimately convincing presentations. If you are a beginning student, or a more advanced individual who wants to sharpen up on your skills, then this is the book to get.Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide OverviewReaders of this book learn graphic rendering skills quickly with the proven how-to approach that has made Lin the most successful teacher in the field. His method emphasizes speed, confidence, and relaxation, while incorporating many time-saving tricks of the trade.

Want to learn more information about Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted ReviewIf you love Paris and the Impressionists' work this is a must have. Taking the walking tours was the highlight of my last trip to the city of lights. Williams helps you see through 100 years of change into a different Paris.The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted Overview

Want to learn more information about The Impressionists' Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists' Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard ReviewModernism in architecture is so closely identified with a handful of hero figures (like Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe) that we often forget that the real story behind its development is a complex and contentious one. In this wonderful and much-needed book, Anthony Alofsin deftly illustrates that the arrival of European architects in the U.S. in the 1930s cast a shadow over emerging progressive trends in American architectural design and education. At Harvard in particular, this led to an amnesia that convinced students and professors alike that it was Gropius who brought modern ideas to the Graduate School of Design when he began teaching there in 1937. "The Struggle for Modernism" shows clearly, though, that the kernels of these modern ideas were present in the Harvard design programs from their beginnings in 1900. It was not from the Bauhaus that Harvard developed its interdisciplinary approach to design that insisted on collaboration amongst architects, landscape architects, and city planners. Instead, it was Americans like Herbert Langford Warren, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., George Harold Edgell, and, most importantly, Joseph Hudnut who over decades created the influential and rigorous design programs. This is a fascinating and most welcome book that sheds much new light on a subject that many have incorrectly assumed was already well-understood. Highly recommended.The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard Overview
A history of modernism in the teaching ofarchitecture, landscape architecture, and cityplanning at Harvard.
This remarkable volume tells the unique history of modernism as reflected in the teaching of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Tracing developments at the GSD, which was home from 1937 to 1952 of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Anthony Alofsin reveals that America had initiated its own modern agenda before the arrival of the European modernist ideology. Filled with archival photographs and plans that have never been published before, this book will be of great interest to students and professionals in the fields of art, architecture, and design, as well as to architectural historians. 20 color and 250 black and white illustrations; plans

Want to learn more information about The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Regional City Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Regional City? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Regional City. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Regional City ReviewThis is yet another book on a New Urbanist idea.
This one describes the idea of transit oriented communties. These are relatively dense planned communities that try to maintain what is seen as the essentials of small community life.
The density and distribution of these communities make them amenable to public transport. However more emphasis is placed on the development of community. Shopping facilities are centralized and made accessible to pedestrians. Public buildings and public space like squares are made central to the life of the community. The public buildings are given distinguished architecture to show their importance to the community. The public park or square is placed at the hub of planned pedestrian traffic to provide a place for unplanned meetings and interactions.
As it is this soert of community will probably work. The idea of the public square at a transportation crossroads as a means to creatre interaction is straight out of Bill Hillier's seminal work 'Space is the machine.' With proper attention to the principles presented by Hillier, there is no reason why a community designed in the way advocated here cannot produce the types of interactions advocated within this book.
However the book does not go far enough to truly identify what these principles are or even to state clearly and directly what basic principles are guiding the plans that it advocates. It would be possible to create developments that follow the plans described here that would work against the outcomes that it is advocating. Hillier's book, in its analysis of some modern housing estates based on similar goals, demosntrates this.
Yet there is something fundamentally wrong with this book. It is a basic statement of architectural determinism. Traditional suburbs are blamed for all problems in society from environmental pollution to school shootings and possibly even to asteroid impacts causing mass extinctions. There seems to be nothing wrong in society that is not the fault of suburbs and that cannot be fixed by these pedestrian-based communities.
The author acknowleges that the autonomy and privacy provided by the suburban form is attractive to many. He even states that his suggested community form is not antithetical to it. However following that one statement the remainder of the book is a jerimiad against suburban life. Privacy and autonomy references are replaced with descriptions of isolation and alienation.
The book would be more convincing if it remained an advocacy for its desired form. There is no doubt that this form if designed properly can foster the close community life that many people find very attractive. However not all people are attracted to this sort of life. Many people prefer the social autonomy that is provided to them in suburbs. With modern communication mechanisms like the telephone, Email, automobile etc, they can maintain multiple social netowkrs each with the social distance that they find comfortable. They are not forced to interact with a neighbor that they do not care for simply because his residence is nearby.
All in all this is a good book for its purpose. The unfortunate blathering about the short comings of suburbs distracts from its main purpsoe and weakens its argument. However many will find the small community life presented here very attractive.
It is worth reading despite these handicaps.The Regional City Overview

Want to learn more information about The Regional City?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan ReviewThis book does a good job of covering Louis Sullivan's career as an ornamental architect. The photographs are very clear and detailed; many are in color. If you have studied Frank Furness, you will see his influence on Louis Sullivan's work. If you have studied Frank Lloyd Wright, you will see Louis Sullivan's influence on FLW. Contrary to the author's opinion, if you have studied classical architecture or the Beaux-Arts you will recognize the influence on Louis Sullivan in spite of his contemporary application of classical architecture principles. I must admit though I loved this book, there were several moments where I could not follow the author's theories associated with Louis Sullivan's architecture or ornamentation; it gets complicated. I have always wondered why Louis Sullivan ran out of work after building masterpiece skyscrapers. The author's explanation is that his partner Alder and FLW left the firm. That doesn't make sense to me. A more plausible explanation would be that ornamentation of a Sullivan scale on skyscrapers is simply too expensive; which is why the International style as hideous as it was and is became so successful. It was cost effective. FLW himself had to abandon the Prairie style because of this; thus Falling Water. One thing is for certain, no matter what Sullivan built, except for his houses, his works were and are stunning/enjoyable. Eleven plates of Sullivan's "A System of Architectural Ornament" are included in the last chapter. The work was the last to be completed by Sullivan. These plates show that Sullivan was not only of sound mind at the end of his life but a genius. He is the master of ornamentation.Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan Overview
An interpretive essay about a much-admired genius of American architecture, with an emphasis on the meaning of ornament in his work and life
Among many books about the person and work of Louis Sullivan, this unusual volume explores the idea that Sullivan's ornament became increasingly central to his architectural enterprise as his career unfolded. It holds that he used ornament to articulate the masses of the skyscrapers he built at the peak of his career and to humanize them in an increasingly hostile cityscape. In his impoverished old age, when important commissions no longer came to him, fully developed and exquisite pencil drawings of ornament served as a surrogate for the great projects he was no longer able to carry out. Cervin Robinson's beautiful photographs of Sullivan's work, supplemented by historical photographs of buildings no longer standing and reproductions of plates from Sullivan's crowning achievement, his book of drawings System of Architectural Ornament, illustrate the text by art historian David Van Zanten. Illustrations, photographs, plans

Want to learn more information about Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City ReviewAnyone who has ever lived in Chatham Village, or anyone who is interested in community planning will certainly be interested in this finely researched book about one of the country's first and most successful planned communities. Ms. Bamberg begins with a thorough history of the concept behind the idea for such a community. Admittedly, I had a special interest in the subject since I grew up in Chatham Village and my parents lived there for over 40 years. The author did a thorough job of bringing this concept community to life and juxtaposing it to other similar communities of the time. Photographs, some from the building phase over 80 years ago, brought added interest to the material.Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City Overview
Chatham Village, located in the heart of Pittsburgh, is an urban oasis that combines Georgian colonial revival architecture with generous greenspaces, recreation facilities, surrounding woodlands, and many other elements that make living there a unique experience. Founded in 1932, it has gained international recognition as an outstanding example of the American Garden City planning movement and was named a National Historic Landmark in 2005. Chatham Village was the brainchild of Charles F. Lewis, then director of the Buhl Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based charitable trust. Lewis sought an alternative to the substandard housing that plagued low-income families in the city. He hired the New York–based team of Clarence S. Stein and Henry Wright, followers of Ebenezer Howard's utopian Garden City movement, which sought to combine the best of urban and suburban living environments by connecting individuals to each other and to nature. Angelique Bamberg provides the first book-length study of Chatham Village, in which she establishes its historical significance to urban planning and reveals the complex development process, social significance, and breakthrough construction and landscaping techniques that shaped this idyllic community. She also relates the design of Chatham Village to the work of other pioneers in urban planning, including Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., landscape architect John Nolen, and the Regional Planning Association of America, and considers the different ways that Chatham Village and the later New Urbanist movement address a common set of issues. Above all, Bamberg finds that Chatham Village's continued viability and vibrance confirms its distinction as a model for planned housing and urban-based community living.


Want to learn more information about Chatham Village: Pittsburgh's Garden City?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City ReviewBased on Maki, the book covers primarily two things.
1. contemporary city.
2. modernist philosophy and diverse phenomenat it generated.
It's a collection of handsome essays that help readers to understand
the mindset of this great architect and also the writing and practice
culture of Japan.
The first section of the book, "formative years", reveals Maki's early quest and thirst
in architecture. We went back and forth between nations and cultures to
embrace the globally accepted architecture and hone universally applicable
design skills. His memories and stories about former GSD Dean, Josep Lluis Sert,
is particularly fun read. His trip to historical towns and his relationship
with the heros of Team X is also a great personal story.
The second section, "collective form", tells Maki's long-sought-after urban
attitude. Based on the analysis of historical towns, Maki draws lasting principles
of collective form and constantly questions and reviews how it could be applied
to the different time zone with chaning living mode. The latter half of the chapter
is devoted to his Hillside Terrace Project. Over period of twenty five years,
in six different phases, Maki's theoretical urbanism manifesto is tested and evolved
through this project.
The third section of the book, "on the city", really shows Maki as an educator.
His research and his views on contemporary cities are well put together. Two essays on
Tokyo and one essay on his cremotorium really stands out. Three essays show how more or less
an outsider of Japanese-architects-circle (Maki studied/ practiced/ taught in the USA for over
ten years) distances himself from his native culture to throw fresh look to the community.
Moreover, the essays become dramatic because they show how Maki, an international figure,
uses universal language to draw out deep Japanese.
The last section, "on architects and architecture", explains how Maki thoroughly reviews
works of others. Two essays on Togo Murano and Yoshio Taniguchi really stands out.
It's informative not only in knowing the historical background of Japanese modern-contemporary
architecture and the two architects, but also in understanding Maki's own stance as an
architect. Mastery in Space and Materiality comes out as binding factors for the three architects.
All in all, a prospect reader will find, Maki as an apprentice, Maki as a (city) truth seeker,
Maki as an outsider (to be true insider), and Maki as a master. Few great architects in the world
practices richly what's been professed and Maki is one of them.

One last note:
Most of people know that star architects in Japan are great designers, however, not many know that they are also
great writers. Thanks to this publication of Maki's (and Isozaki's "Japaness in architecture"),intellectual force
of top Japanese architects is available in English. Kengo Kuma and Tadao Ando also wrote great books recently in Japan.
Hope their publication also become available to English audience soon.Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City Overview

Want to learn more information about Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Historic Preservation and the Livable City Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Historic Preservation and the Livable City? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Historic Preservation and the Livable City. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Historic Preservation and the Livable City Review
Everything old is new again. This book tells us why. Not since Jane Jacobs' THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES has a book so clearly drawn out the things that make a city livable. Turns out a lot of it has to do with a sense of time and place.

I learned a lot about myself and where I live (Greenwich Village). Though I guess the target audience is also planners, economic development people, preservationists, housing people, etc. - professionals whose job is making a city work and thrive. But this book is a gift for curious and innocent city dwellers like me who half killed themselves restoring old housing stock because it felt more like a place to live than some modern sheetrock box. Now I understand a lot more about why I did it.

The authors are also out to change opinions. The main argument is that heritage (historic) preservation needs to be integrated into the planning and upkeep of cities as an integral part of creating and maintaining livable environments, not treated as an impediment. Turns out it's actually cheaper in many cases to restore existing sturdy housing stock than to bulldoze it for structural crap. (No wonder luxury Park Avenue housing always advertises itself as "pre-war," code for plaster, not quarter-inch sheetrock.)

The book also provides a library's worth of case studies of cities across the country that have seen the light and renovated and saved their architectural heritage. This annotated catalogue (with a treasure trove of photos) is itself reason enough to include the book in any collection of record. It also convincingly argues for cities to include sustainability and heritage preservation in any comprehensive planning, cutting across all the different agencies involved. Given how historic preservation enriches us all, it should be a starting point, not an afterthought.

This book tells us in detail where we've been. I hope it also tells us where we're going.
Thomas Hoover
www.thomashoover.info
Historic Preservation and the Livable City OverviewFor both the preservation professional and urban planner, this book shows how preservation is a key to the creation of livable cities. The author Eric Allison, the founder and coordinated of the graduate historic preservation program at Pratt Institute in New York City, offers tools and case studies that preservationists and planners can learn from in implementing preservation projects or plans in cities large and small. This book is a must read for anyone working in or interested in these fields and the creation and maintenance of livable cities.

Want to learn more information about Historic Preservation and the Livable City?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design) ReviewHaving embarked on a sustainability plan without the aid or foresight of any type of guidebook or comprehensive strategy, I am extremely supportive of the effort that author Stephen Coyle has undertaken in compiling Sustainable and Resilient Communities. This book should be the "Read Me!" document for anyone looking to engage in sustainability planning efforts from a government or community perspective. It's not the first book that I've read on how to engage in sustainability efforts (honestly such titles are beginning to become "a dime a dozen"), but it is the first book that focuses on how to create an action plan to make a community more sustainable (rather than simply focusing on successful efforts in other areas). Coyle manages to provide realistic strategies that can easily be worked into the political context of almost any community without crossing into the fringe of developing technologies or antiquated reductionist themes.
Sustainable and Resilient Communities is broken down into 13 chapters which address the various facets of sustainability. The chapters are:
1.The Built Environments and Its Supporting Systems
2.The Process of Transformation
3.The Physical Built Environment
4.The Regulatory Environment
5.Transportation
6.Energy
7.Water
8.Natural Environment
9.Food Production/Agriculture
10.Solid Waste
11.Economics
12.Engagement and Education
13.Public Health
The first two chapters provide a solid assessment of the sustainability planning process and offer a prescriptive framework for how it can be implemented within a community. Chapter 2 also provides a robust breakdown of the process showing how to assemble potential stakeholders, how to effectively use those stakeholders, how to gain support from a broad segment of the community, and how to successfully implement a sustainability plan. The remaining chapters break down each of the specialty topics and provide case studies that demonstrate how the topics were successfully tackled.
Sustainable and Resilient Communities is a 404 page manual on how to create a sustainability plan. This is the manual that you should pass around your organization or civic group to learn how to manage the process and how to build support. I found it to be well-written and filled with a wealth of information. Coyle has done a superb job of assembling a group of experts well-versed in the subject matter presented.It doesn't take a singular or rigid approach to building a sustainability plan but instead shows how communities can create objectives that meet the needs of their citizens.
I found the book to be well illustrated with rational and relevant examples. The graphics and detailed examples from municipalities around the country are extremely useful in brainstorming approaches. The graphics are also appropriately placed to make the topics at hand more cogent. The book opens with a Foreword from Andrés Duany and continues with poignant articles by renowned experts in their respective fields.
If you're interested in sustainability plans or sustainability action plans or just creating sustainability indicators for your organization this book is an excellent place to start. It's targeted to those involved with government organization, but it's a good tool in the hands of a community activists or civic group. It would also be an excellent manual for organizations looking to approach sustainability internally.
Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design) Overview
The ultimate step-by-step action plan guidebook for making communities resilient, resourceful, and healthy

Many of today's communities face an unprecedented struggle to adapt and maintain their environmental, economic, and social well-being in an era beleaguered by fiscal constraints, uncertainty about energy prices and supplies, rapid demographic shifts, and accelerated climate impacts. This step-by-step guidebook for urban planners and urban designers explains how to create and implement an actionable plan for making neighborhoods, communities, and regions more environmentally healthy, resource-conserving, and economically resilient. Sustainable and Resilient Communities delineates measures for repairing, retrofitting, and transforming our built environments and supporting systems-transportation, energy, water, natural environment, food production, solid waste, and economics-through:

Methods for assessing a community's key sustainability quotient

Deploying tools for establishing timely performance goals and metrics

Developing strategies for evaluating, selecting, and implementing 'high-leverage' interventions

Activating policies, codes, programs, plans, and practices, as well as monitoring and upgrading their performance

The book includes a range of targeted case studies, from New Orleans and South Carolina to Arizona and California, illustrating geographically diverse approaches for urban contexts large and small.
A resource for developing an ecological urbanism, Sustainable and Resilient Communities employs time-proven, broadly applicable strategies and actions that can be customized for specific environmental, energy, and economic conditions.

Want to learn more information about Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...