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Product Description
Everyone is calling for smart growth...but what exactly is it?
In The Smart Growth Manual, two leading city planners provide a thorough answer. From the expanse of the metropolis to the detail of the window box, they address the pressing challenges of urban development with easy-to-follow advice and broad array of best practices.
With their landmark book Suburban Nation, Andres Duany and Jeff Speck "set forth more clearly than anyone has done in our time the elements of good town planning" (The New Yorker). With this long-awaited companion volume, the authors have organized the latest contributions of new urbanism, green design, and healthy communities into a comprehensive handbook, fully illustrated with the built work of the nation's leading practitioners.
"The Smart Growth Manual is an indispensable guide to city planning. This kind of progressive development is the only way to fully restore our economic strength and create new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete in the first rank of world economies." -- Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco
"Authors Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon have created The Smart Growth Manual, a resource which not only explains the overarching ideals of smart growth, but a manual that takes the time to show smart growth principles at each geographic scale (region, neighborhood, street, building). I highly recommend [it] as a part of any community participant’s or urban planner’s desktop references." -- LocalPlan.org
Planetizen Top 10 Books – 2010
On the ninth annual list of the ten best books in urban planning, design and development:
"The goal of The Smart Growth Manual is clear from page 1: to create a guidebook for smart growth following the pattern of the Charter for New Urbanism. Duany, Speck and Lydon have achieved that in spades (the Charter is included in the appendix, in case we missed the connection). It even clears up some of the architectural arguments that attach themselves to New Urbanists, such as this segment of Section 14.1, Regional Design; 'While new buildings should not be compelled to mimic their historic predecessors, designers should pay attention to local practices regarding materials and colors, roof pitches, eave lengths, window-to-wall ratios, and the socially significant relationship of buildings to their site and the street; these have usually evolved in intelligent response to local conditions.' In addition to making the old 'traditional vs. modern' argument irrelevant, Duany, Speck and Lydon have truly managed to boil down the best parts of current practices into a highly readable, portable book."
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Laudable Intentions!,
By
This review is from: The Smart Growth Manual (Paperback)
This book's laudable objective is to present, very specifically, how smart growth can actually be implemented. A considerable number of elements are presented, some very detailed, in fact similar to building standards, others very general that would be difficult to apply as such. The book is structured in four sections: regions, neighbourhoods, streets and buildings. Strangely for a work with a pro-urban standpoint, downtowns are not treated as such, although passing references are made here and there.
Odd editorial choices were made with respect to the book's production. First, doubtlessly to project a green image, the fibre-packed paper used is very obviously recycled _ as was current when recycling first was introduced decades ago. This leads to a very poor printing quality of the colour photographs _ which are perhaps not all that artistic and telling in the first place. Second, the book is pocket-size, presumably so that it can be easily carried to meetings. This of course restricts importantly the space available for text. As each item is covered on a single page and each is illustrated with a photograph, needless to say that content is not very elaborate. Third, pages are not numbered, most likely to avoid confusion with the hierarchy of the items presented (1.1, 1.2, etc.). This actually makes consulting the book a bit confusing as these section numbers are not written on the right-hand page corners. At the end of the book, several pages are devoted to listing the addresses of various local groups devoted to the promotion of smart growth in the United States. This list, of course, is liable to being quickly outdated. So, why not refer to a single Web site? Actually, why not replace the whole book with a Web site where references to other sources could be liberally provided? With BlackBerries and iPhones, its portability would not be reduced and it could constantly be improved and updated.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very approachable.,
By Blobot (Halifax, NS) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Smart Growth Manual (Paperback)
It is a simple and easy approach to New Urbanism. Everything is illustrated, leaving a small amount of space for text. If you have studied New Urbanism before, this book is not all that informative. I like the approach, it's well organized, however it barely skims the surface of most aspects.
It's format reminds me of Alexander's Pattern Language. It is printed on low-quality newsprint, but I appreciate the environmental effort.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews) 26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review from LocalPlan.org,
By Joshua P. OConner "Josh O'Conner" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Smart Growth Manual (Paperback)
[...].
Authors Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon have created The Smart Growth Manual, a resource which not only explains the overarching ideals of smart growth, but a manual that takes the time to show smart growth principles at each geographic scale (region, neighborhood, street, building). The Smart Growth Manual bounces back and forth (in a beautifully organized manner) between steps for the implementation of smart growth and key concepts. The format of The Smart Growth Manual allows for each concept to be referenced and reviewed quickly (each concept is explained in about half a page). I found The Smart Growth Manual to be the type of reference that you would throw in your bag before heading to your community association meeting or grab on your way to a city council hearing about a new development. The information is presented in such a simplistic, uncluttered format that you can use it almost like a dictionary. Instead of wondering whether a particular idea really is smart growth you can flip to it in the manual and understand how the concept would work and how it relates to other principles of smart growth. More importantly it can be used to better articulate community goals through providing an accessible guide to smart growth in an attainable format for charrettes, community meetings, etc. To make The Smart Growth Manual all the more enticing, the pages are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and it's pretty much pocket sized (so you don't have to lug around yet another huge manual in addition to ordinances and the like). The pages feature vivid illustrations and photographs of each concept so it's not a struggle to understand or explain a concept. I highly recommend The Smart Growth Manual as a part of any community participant's or urban planner's desktop references. 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Supremely useful--with a few suggestions for the next edition,
By Reader in St Pete - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Smart Growth Manual (Paperback)
Duany and company are architects so their focus on design is highly useful. Echoing other on-the-ball reviewers here, the book is very well organized, easy to follow and leads directly to application.
If the authors ever read customer comments, I would like to suggest the following should the book be updated: 1. Our country's population is growing, but it also aging. Over the next 20 years, the aging of the population may be more significant to planners than "just" growth (which is inevitable, despite the silly claims of other reviewers). There has to be a "Smart Aging" perspective this country needs to adopt because older Americans have different needs--not lesser needs, different needs that should be addressed. 2. Include a section on the behavioral side of Smart Growth--while a necessary component of getting people out of their cars, design by itself is insufficient to get people out of their cars. What incentives, what kind of education and outreach needs to take place for the public and, perhaps most importantly, elected officials. Most local officials aren't particularly brave. They need help. 13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Both Sides Thumbs Up,
By Richard L. Oram - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Smart Growth Manual (Paperback)
This book is likely to change things. It works from both sides: for planners and politicians to teach themselves and others, and for citizens concerned about what planners might do. It will help planners get new visions across. And help them ease valid citizen concerns and even NIMBY concerns. It conveys concepts by showing reality ... which sounds very good no matter what side you are on. I studied urban planning 30+ years ago and walked away from it as it seemed more wrong than right. This book will go a long way to making things right.
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