New Urbanism: Michigan Debates on Urbanism II

by Peter Calthorpe

In this volume Peter Calthorpe, renowned West Coast town planner and author, presents the case for New Urbanism, a movement that has enjoyed meteoric success since he co-founded it in the early 1990s. More utopian and civic than Everyday Urbanism , it promotes mixed-use and transit-oriented development and redevelopment of our cities, as well as walkability and socio-economic diversity. Less avant-garde than Post Urbanism , it embraces traditional urban and architectural scale and typologies. Lars Lerup, Dean of the School of Architecture at Rice University and author, responds with counter-arguments and case studies in a passionate but constructive exchange. Historian Robert Fishman, Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at Taubman College and the author of several seminal books on urbanism, introduces and moderates the discussion, and offers a postscript. This compelling and insightful publication, with scores of images, features timely topics for architects, urban planners and designers, developers, government officials, landscape architects, students and citizens interested in the fate of their urban environment.

Genres: Cities, Urbanism

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2005

About the author

Peter Calthorpe is a San Francisco–based architect, urban designer, and urban planner. He is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago-based advocacy group formed in 1992 that promotes sustainable building practices. For his works on redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America Calthorpe has been named one of twenty-five ‘innovators on the cutting edge’ by Newsweek magazine. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Shruti Kasarekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but sweet. Thoughtful commentary on American cities, communities and future.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of a three-part series tied to debates at the University of Michigan (based on Dean Kelbaugh's, perhaps dubious, concept that three strains of urban design approaches are relevant in the US today), this one was interesting as it puts old Berkeley chums head to head to debate Calthorpe's approach to a region-focused "new urbanism." Lerup, of course, takes a position that appreciates, or at least accepts, much of what we call sprawl (highway corridors as "speedzones" that order such fine cities like Houston) with an eye towards modifications - within the system - to approach a better ecological balance (flat, planted roofs on the otherwise detached houses). All somewhat interesting but certainly less dialectally charged - or more overtly respectful - than I expected.