Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices

ISBN-13: 9781932364811 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 240 str.

Randall Arendt

Opis

Randall Arendt's work has shaped a generation of planners, designers, and landscape architects. In Envisioning Better Communities, he brings his insights to a broader public, with a profusely illustrated demonstration of how local officials, planning commissioners, and everyday citizens can work to make their communities more attractive, more habitable, and more sustainable. Despite the widespread acceptance of good design and planning principles throughout the professions, too many of our towns and rural areas remain needlessly ugly and inefficient. In side by side comparisons of similar places and kinds of buildings, Arendt shows that we need not live amid sprawling, characterless visual blight. Simple design choices and effective municipal decisions can have tremendous impacts on the quality of our communities. Written in Arendt's well-known clear, accessible, nontechnical style, this book creates a sense of hope for those who face the everyday challenges of working with developers and landowners to create places that make economic, environmental, and aesthetic sense.Arendt shows us that with diligence, thoughtfulness, and care, we can make our communities better in countless ways.

Spis treści

1. Balancing Development and Conservation through Community-wide Planning 2. Conservation Subdivision Design Recommended Procedures 3. Residential Neighborhood Design Principles 4. Improving Downtown Appearance and Viability 5. Transforming Highway Commercial Strips into Mixed Use Centers 6. Conclusion: Where to Go from Here

O autorze

Randall Arendt is a landscape planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and advocate. He is senior conservation advisor at the Natural Lands Trust and a fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He is the author of more than 20 publications, including Rural by Design; Growing Greener; Crossroads, Hamlet, Village, Town; and Conservation Design for Subdivisions.