Synopses & Reviews
For a decade,
Suburban Nation has given voice to a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and replace the last centurys automobile-based settlement patterns with a return to more traditional planning. Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of the movement, and even their critics, such as Fred Barnes in
The Weekly Standard, recognized that “
Suburban Nation is likely to become this movements bible.” A lively lament about the failures of postwar planning, this is also that rare book that offers solutions: “an essential handbook” (
San Francisco Chronicle). This tenth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the authors.
Review
“An essential text for our time . . . Not only a passionately argued, carefully reasoned dissection of the mess that is becoming man-made America but also a clear program of steps that can be taken to enhance the humanity of both our suburbs and our cities while conserving our rapidly dwindling countryside. Everyone who cares about the future of our American way of life should read this book.” Robert A.M. Stern, Dean, Yale School of Architecture
“[This book offers] a clear-eyed, closely reasoned description by its founders of the most important movement in American architecture and city making of this generation: the New Urbanism, based not upon the ‘nostalgia for which it has been unjustly criticized but upon solid architectural, historical, and sociological analysis, and hard common sense.” Vincent Scully
"Suburban Nation dissects the physical design of the suburbs brilliantly . . . [the authors] set forth more clearly than anyone has done in our time the elements of good town planning." The New Yorker
"A powerful manifesto . . . No one has yet produced a work as pithy or likely to win converts to the cause as this briskly written and persuasive brief." The Boston Sunday Globe
Review
“As compelling and important as Jane Jacobss
The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Venturi, Brown, and Izenours
Learning from Las Vegas . . . Everyone who cares about the future of our American way of life should read this book.” —ROBERT A. M. STERN, Dean, Yale School of Architecture
“Among the wittiest and most perceptive books about sprawl. You couldnt ask for a better trio to guide you through any part of the American built environment.” —HAROLD HENDERSON, Planning
About the Author
Andres Duany and
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk lead a firm that has designed more than 200 new neighborhoods and community revitalization plans, most famously, Seaside, Florida.
Jeff Speck is director of town planning for the firm.