Suburban Nation The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck

ISBN 10: 0865475571 / ISBN 13: 9780865475571

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # D0D3185CF08C2A6

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Suburban Nation The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865475571
• ISBN 13: 9780865475571
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

A manifesto by America's most controversial and celebrated town planners, proposing an alternative model for community design.

There is a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and to replace the automobile-based settlement patterns of the past fifty years with a return to more traditional planning principles. This movement stems not only from the realization that sprawl is ecologically and economically unsustainable but also from a growing awareness of sprawl's many victims: children, utterly dependent on parental transportation if they wish to escape the cul-de-sac; the elderly, warehoused in institutions once they lose their driver's licenses; the middle class, stuck in traffic for two or more hours each day.

Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of this movement, and in Suburban Nation they assess sprawl's costs to society, be they ecological, economic, aesthetic, or social. It is a lively, thorough, critical lament, and an entertaining lesson on the distinctions between postwar suburbia-characterized by housing clusters, strip shopping centers, office parks, and parking lots-and the traditional neighborhoods that were built as a matter of course until mid-century. It is an indictment of the entire development community, including governments, for the fact that America no longer builds towns. Most important, though, it is that rare book that also offers solutions.

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.