Synopses & Reviews
The typical town springs up around a natural resourceandmdash;a river, an ocean, an exceptionally deep harborandmdash;or in proximity to a larger, already thriving town. Not so with andldquo;new towns,andrdquo; which are created by decree rather than out of necessity and are often intended to break from the tendencies of past development. New towns arenandrsquo;t a new thingandmdash;ancient Phoenicians named their colonies
Qart Hadasht, or New Cityandmdash;but these utopian developments saw a resurgence in the twentieth century.
In Practicing Utopia, Rosemary Wakeman gives us a sweeping view of the new town movement as a global phenomenon. From Tapiola in Finland to Islamabad in Pakistan, Cergy-Pontoise in France to Irvine in California, Wakeman unspools a masterly account of the golden age of new towns, exploring their utopian qualities and investigating what these towns can tell us about contemporary modernization and urban planning. She presents the new town movement as something truly global, defying a Cold War East-West dichotomy or the north-south polarization of rich and poor countries. Wherever these new towns were located, whatever their size, whether famous or forgotten, they shared a utopian lineage and conception that, in each case, reveals how residents and planners imagined their ideal urban future.
Synopsis
The "new community" movement of the 1960s and 1970s attempted a grand experiment in housing. It inspired the construction of innovative communities that were designed to counter suburbia's cultural conformity, social isolation, ugliness, and environmental problems. This richly documented book examines the results of those experiments in three of the most successful new communities: Irvine Ranch in Southern California, Columbia in Maryland, and The Woodlands in the suburbs of Houston, Texas.
Based on new research and interviews with developers, designers, and residents, Ann Forsyth traces the evolution, the successes, and the shortcomings of these experiments in urban innovation. Where they succeeded, in areas such as community identity and open space preservation, they provide support for current "smart growth" proposals. Where they did not, in areas such as housing affordability and transportation choices, they offer important insights for today's planners, designers, developers, civic leaders, and others interested in incorporating new forms of development into their designs.
Synopsis
"
Reforming Suburbia is a fascinating book. Forsyth examines the planned new towns of Columbia, Irvine, and The Woodlands through dozens of interviews with developers, designers, and residents as well as extensive archival research. She tackles complex public and private investments and asks how negotiations proceeded between government and real estate developers, all the while keeping an eye on the issues of race, gender, environmental sustainability, and marketing. This is required reading for anyone interested in the practice of American urban development."and#151;Dolores Hayden, author of
Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000"Ann Forsyth significantly enriches the fields of planning and architectural history with her thorough analysis of the social, ecological, and economic successes and shortcomings of these three prominent new communities. She offers valuable insights and wonderfully captures the idealistic spirit of the late 1960s and early 1970s."and#151;Frederick Steiner, author of Human Ecology
About the Author
Rosemary Wakeman is professor of history and director of the Urban Studies Program at Fordham University. She is the author of The Heroic City: Paris 1945andndash;1958, also published by the University of Chicago Press. She lives in New York.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
1. The New Community Experiment
2. The Irvine Ranch
3. Columbia
4. The Woodlands
5. Organizing the Metropolis
6. Alternatives to Sprawl?
7. New Town Planning and the Paradoxes of Private Innovation
Appendix A. Ahwahnee Principles, Charter of the New Urbanism, and EPA Smart Growth Principles
Appendix B. Census Data for Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands, 1980and#150;2000
Appendix C. Study Methods
Appendix D. Criticisms and Benefits of Suburban Growth with Evaluation of Case Study New Communities
Appendix E. Densities of Typical Residential Villages in Irvine and The Woodlands
Notes
References
Index