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Academics, community activists, and politicians have rediscovered regionalism, insisting that regions are critical functional units in a world-wide economy and, just as important, critical functional units in individual American lives. More and more of us travel across city, county, even state borders every morning on our way to work. Our television, radio, and print media rely on a regional marketplace. Our businesses, large and small, depend on suppliers, workers, and customers who rarely reside in a single jurisdiction. The parks, riverfronts, stadiums, and museums we visit draw from, and provide an identity to, an area much larger than a single city. The fumes, gases, chemicals, and run-...
Dalbey (Jackson State U.) hypothesizes that US regional parkways of the 1920s and 1930s emerged out of two conflicting visions of regional planning, and examines how the conflict impacted the development of Skyline Drive in Virginia and the proposed Green Mountain Parkway in Vermont. The regional view, he says, coalesced around the work of Benton MacKaye, Lewis Mumford, and the Regional Planning Association of America; and the metropolitan view grew out of market-oriented economic boosterism efforts, and was supported by Thomas Adams and the Regional Plan of New York and its Environs. He also shows how the tussle between vision and reality--social reform or economic optimization--continues to inform planning. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
One of the great debates of our time concerns the predominant form of land use in America today -- the all too familiar pattern of commercial and residential development known as sprawl. But what do we really know about sprawl? Do we know what it is? Where did it come from? Is it really so bad? If so, what are the alternatives? Can anything be done to make it better? The Limitless City offers an accessible examination of those and related questions. Oliver Gillham, an architect and planner with more than twenty-five years of experience in the field, considers the history and development of sprawl and examines current debates about the issue. The book: offers a comprehensive definition of spr...
Drawing on the history of state and local government in the New York Tri-State metropolitan region, the authors present a pathbreaking new theory about the values reformers must understand and balance in order to tackle the hard challenges of reforming and regionalizing local governance in the complex, dynamic world of American politics and public policy. Their examination of the way 2,179 local governments in the Tri-State region have evolved over more than a century pays special attention to New York City, but is applicable to other metropolitan areas. It brings to life ideas that are crucial to a subject that in the academic literature is often treated in a way that is abstract and hard to grasp. This is a valuable book for scholars, political leaders, and students interested in regionalism in metropolitan America and in the fascinating history and governance of the nation¡¯s largest city and its vast metropolitan region.
Humans have always been influenced by natural landscapes, and always will be—even as we create ever-larger cities and our developments fundamentally change the nature of the earth around us. In Human Ecology, noted city planner and landscape architect Frederick Steiner encourages us to consider how human cultures have been shaped by natural forces, and how we might use this understanding to contribute to a future where both nature and people thrive. Human ecology is the study of the interrelationships between humans and their environment, drawing on diverse fields from biology and geography to sociology, engineering, and architecture. Steiner admirably synthesizes these perspectives throug...
Current patterns of land use and development are at once socially, economically, and environmentally destructive. Sprawling low-density development literally devours natural landscapes while breeding a pervasive sense of social isolation and exacerbating a vast array of economic problems. As more and more counties begin to look more and more the same, hope for a different future may seem to be fading. But alternatives do exist. The Ecology of Place, Timothy Beatley and Kristy Manning describe a world in which land is consumed sparingly, cities and towns are vibrant and green, local economies thrive, and citizens work together to create places of eduring value. They present a holistic and com...
The Living Landscape is a manifesto, resource, and textbook for architects, landscape architects, environmental planners, students, and others involved in creating human communities. Since its first edition, published in 1990, it has taught its readers how to develop new built environments while conserving natural resources. No other book presents such a comprehensive approach to planning that is rooted in ecology and design. And no other book offers a similar step-by-step method for planning with an emphasis on sustainable development. This second edition of The Living Landscape offers Frederick Steiner’s design-oriented ecological methods to a new generation of students and professionals...
The new student edition of the definitive reference on urban planning and design Planning and Urban Design Standards, Student Edition is the authoritative and reliable volume designed to teach students best practices and guidelines for urban planning and design. Edited from the main volume to meet the serious student's needs, this Student Edition is packed with more than 1,400 informative illustrations and includes the latest rules of thumb for designing and evaluating any land-use scheme--from street plantings to new subdivisions. Students find real help understanding all the practical information on the physical aspects of planning and urban design they are required to know, including: * P...
An interdisciplinary account of the environmental history and changing landscape of New York City. In this innovative account of the urbanization of nature in New York City, Matthew Gandy explores how the raw materials of nature have been reworked to produce a "metropolitan nature" distinct from the forms of nature experienced by early settlers. The book traces five broad developments: the expansion and redefinition of public space, the construction of landscaped highways, the creation of a modern water supply system, the radical environmental politics of the barrio in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the contemporary politics of the environmental justice movement. Drawing on political ec...
Ecocomposition examines current trends in universities toward more environmentally sound work, explores the intersections between composition research—that is, discourse studies—and ecostudies, and offers possible pedagogies for the composition classroom. Never before have the intersections between ecotheory and composition studies in theory and pedagogy been addressed in this much depth or detail. As universities become increasingly concerned with issues of the environment within academic disciplines across the spectrum, this book brings together a diverse group of prominent voices to discuss the development of ecocomposition and its possibilities, and to argue for a greening of composition studies through which to engage the world in which we live.