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The Smart Growth Manual

The Smart Growth ManualAuthors: Andres Duany, Jeff Speck, Mike Lydon
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
Category: Book

List Price: $24.95
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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 11 reviews
Sales Rank: 11713

Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6

ISBN: 0071376755
Dewey Decimal Number: 307.12160973
UPC: 639785328872
EAN: 9780071376754
ASIN: 0071376755

Publication Date: October 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

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



Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11



5 out of 5 stars Review from LocalPlan.org   November 19, 2009
Joshua P. OConner (LocalPlan.org)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful

[...].

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.



5 out of 5 stars Delightful   January 6, 2010
Creede Murphy (San Diego)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is a great reference manual for those in the design and development worlds as well as a great introduction and reasonably quick education for those who are first being exposed to the principals of Smart Growth. A very comprehensive 'list' of principals and design considerations that EVERY project would do well to take into consideration. This book is delightful in can be easily understood while not skimping on content. Highly recommended.


5 out of 5 stars Both Sides Thumbs Up   December 1, 2009
Richard L. Oram
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

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.


5 out of 5 stars Indispensable Planning Tool   January 20, 2010
Ann B. Daigle
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Finally, after a dozen years of discussion about sprawl versus smart growth, the definitive manual is here. Andrés Duany, Jeff Speck and Mike Lydon have written an artfully concise, universally accessible handbook that balances basic concepts with complex details. The book mixes substantial "best planning practice" and development wisdom with brilliant insight. It proves (by describing observable cause and effect), that championing smart growth will result in highly livable places that are also environmentally and economically sustainable.

Each page-long tutorial features a title, a half-page of understandable text and an illustrative photograph or diagram. The subjects are rationally organized by scale, from the region to the neighborhood to the lot and building. The rural to urban transect is described near the beginning as an organizing system for planning. Like the transect itself, the book integrates environmental, design, building development and financial concerns.

The United States has long needed a "how to" catalogue for growth that can also serve to measure the quality of development. This book is it. If followed, it could literally change the American landscape and our long-term future for success.

"The Smart Growth Manual" should be distributed nationwide to elected officials, governments, developers, planners, architects and community activists.



5 out of 5 stars Supremely useful--with a few suggestions for the next edition   April 16, 2010
Reader in St Pete (Florida, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

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.


Showing reviews 1-5 of 11



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