Walkable City


Book Description

Presents a plan for American cities that focuses on making downtowns walkable and less attractive to drivers through smart growth and sustainable design




Walkable Neighborhoods


Book Description

It is now widely recognized that individual-based motivational interventions alone are not sufficient to address the global pandemic of physical inactivity (lack of exercise and too much sitting time). There has been a growing interest in the effect the physically built environment can have on people’s active behaviors. The fundamental assumption is that surrounding physical environments can support active behaviors among a large number of people with long-term effects. This topic has received much attention over the last decade, mainly in the three fields of urban design, public health, and transportation. This Special Issue aims to provide multidisciplinary and evidence-based state-of-the-art research on how the locations where people live impact their active behaviors and health outcomes.




Walkable City Rules


Book Description

“Cities are the future of the human race, and Jeff Speck knows how to make them work.” —David Owen, staff writer at the New Yorker Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable—for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment—yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his bestselling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now. The 101 rules are practical yet engaging—worded for arguments at the planning commission, illustrated for clarity, and packed with specifications as well as data. For ease of use, the rules are grouped into 19 chapters that cover everything from selling walkability, to getting the parking right, escaping automobilism, making comfortable spaces and interesting places, and doing it now! Walkable City was written to inspire; Walkable City Rules was written to enable. It is the most comprehensive tool available for bringing the latest and most effective city-planning practices to bear in your community. The content and presentation make it a force multiplier for place-makers and change-makers everywhere.




Increments of Neighborhood


Book Description

Intended as a comprehensive resource, 'Increments of Neighborhood' is a compendium of recent built work for urban neighbourhoods, encompassing the spectrum of building types financed/built by today's American real estate industry - from single family and townhouses, through 'missing middle' stacked housing, stick-built housing, large multi-family, and high-rise buildings. This publication is the only resource in the marketplace that tabulates market-rate products that fill America's cities, as well as being a comparative resource that shows how these types can be deployed in a way befitting smart-growth using sustainable principles. The only resource of its type, 'Increments of Neighborhood' will demystify the understanding of costs and type, contribute to the public realm for the non-architectural professional, and provide a breadth and range of significant new information for experienced architects who typically specialise in a particular segment of building products such as hospitals or single-family houses, information with which they are frequently unacquainted.




Walking Chicago


Book Description

Walk the streets of Chicago and discover why the town that brought us Michael Jordan, Al Capone, and Oprah is anything but a "Second City." Chicago's diverse neighborhoods represent a true melting pot of America--from Little Italy to Greektown, Chinatown to New Chinatown, and La Villita to the Ukrainian Village. It's also the most walkable city in the country, with flat streets laid out in a sensible grid and 21 miles of stunning lakeshore. The 31 walks described here include trivia about architecture, political gossip, and the city's rich history, plus where to dine, get the best deep-dish pizza, visit world-class museums, have a drink, and shop.




Made for Walking


Book Description

Julie Campoli showcases twelve vibrant North American neighborhoods where residents can live comfortably without a car. By identifying the policies and amenities that foster such streetscapes, Campoli teaches urban developers, decision makers, and students how to create similar communities and help to mitigate climate change.




Walkable Cities


Book Description

Examines how cities of various sizes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are making walkability improvements a part of their overall urban revitalization strategy. Walkable precincts have become an important component of urban revitalization on both sides of the Atlantic. In Walkable Cities, Carlos J. L. Balsas examines a range of city scales and geographic settings on three continents, focusing on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), and the United States (Phoenix and New York City). He explains how this “pedestrianization of Main Street” approach to central locations (downtowns and midtowns) has contributed to strengthening various urban functions, such as urban vitality, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, tourism, and more. However, it has also put pressure on less affluent, peripheral, and fragile areas due to higher levels of consumption and waste generation. Balsas calls attention to the need to base urban revitalization interventions on more spatially and socially just interventions coupled with sustainable consumption practices that do not necessarily entail high growth levels, but instead aim to improve the quality of city life. “The notion of commercial urbanism is both novel and engaging, since much of the vibrancy of cities comes from commerce, consumption, and entertainment. The idea itself is a major contribution of the book.” — Tridib Kumar Banerjee, University of Southern California




Strong Towns


Book Description

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.




Berkeley Walks


Book Description

Berkeley Walks celebrates the things that make Berkeley such a wonderful walking city—diverse architecture, panoramic views, tree-lined neighborhoods, historic homes, unusual gardens, secret pathways, hidden parks, vibrant street life, trend-setting restaurants, and intriguing history. Fascinating and surprising sidelights include the apartment building from which Patty Hearst was kidnapped; Ted Kaczynski’s home before he became the Unabomber; and the residences of Nobel laureates and literary Berkeleyans such as Thornton Wilder, Ann Rice, and Philip K. Dick. Bob Johnson and Janet Byron—longtime city residents and tour guides—designed these 18 walks to showcase the many elements that make Berkeley’s neighborhoods, shopping districts, and academic areas such fun to explore. Visitors will discover a vibrant community beyond the University of California campus borders, while locals will be surprised and delighted by the treasures in their own backyards. Highlights of the book include a focus on architects Joseph Esherick, John Galen Howard, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, James Plachek, Walter Ratcliff, Jr., and John Hudson Thomas, 100 archival and original photos, and 20 maps, including a map of Berkeley bookstores.




Missing Middle Housing


Book Description

Today, there is a tremendous mismatch between the available housing stock in the US and the housing options that people want and need. The post-WWII, auto-centric, single-family-development model no longer meets the needs of residents. Urban areas in the US are experiencing dramatically shifting household and cultural demographics and a growing demand for walkable urban living. Missing Middle Housing, a term coined by Daniel Parolek, describes the walkable, desirable, yet attainable housing that many people across the country are struggling to find. Missing Middle Housing types—such as duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts—can provide options along a spectrum of affordability. In Missing Middle Housing, Parolek, an architect and urban designer, illustrates the power of these housing types to meet today’s diverse housing needs. With the benefit of beautiful full-color graphics, Parolek goes into depth about the benefits and qualities of Missing Middle Housing. The book demonstrates why more developers should be building Missing Middle Housing and defines the barriers cities need to remove to enable it to be built. Case studies of built projects show what is possible, from the Prairie Queen Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska to the Sonoma Wildfire Cottages, in California. A chapter from urban scholar Arthur C. Nelson uses data analysis to highlight the urgency to deliver Missing Middle Housing. Parolek proves that density is too blunt of an instrument to effectively regulate for twenty-first-century housing needs. Complete industries and systems will have to be rethought to help deliver the broad range of Missing Middle Housing needed to meet the demand, as this book shows. Whether you are a planner, architect, builder, or city leader, Missing Middle Housing will help you think differently about how to address housing needs for today’s communities.