Retrofitting Suburbia

Updated with a new Introduction by the authors and a foreword by Richard Florida, this book is a comprehensive guide book for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and more sustainable places. "THE BIBLE OF THE RETROFITTING MOVEMENT." —Blair Kamin, architecture critic, Chicago Tribune A guide, with multiple case studies, for redeveloping out-of-date suburban developments into more urban, sustainable places The winner in the Architecture & Urban Planning category of the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards) The last fifty years have been dominated by the reproduction of sprawl development patterns. The big project for the next fifty years will be retro-fitting sprawl into sustainable places. This edition of Retrofitting Suburbia, which includes a Foreword by Richard Florida and new updated Introduction by the authors, is a comprehensive guidebook for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and sustainable places. Retrofitting Suburbia in the press: Retrofitting Suburbia was featured in Time magazine's March 23, 2009 cover story on "Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now" "In their book, architects and academics Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson . . . recommend urban strategies to solve suburban problems. The book's numerous case studies show that this strategy has its merits. Increasing density, transit, and walkability often (though not always) can help to revitalize struggling communities." — Allison Arieff, The New York Times "Why, where, and how should suburbia be retrofitted? This content-rich, well-written book provides compelling answers. The book's analysis and commentaries are rigorous and comprehensive, predicated not on academic theory but on planning and development history, social science, demographics, market conditions, and regulatory considerations." — Architectural Record "Architects Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson confront the challenge of redeveloping abandoned suburban retail space in their new book, Retrofitting Suburbia. The detailed text also explores several creative solutions in which progressive planning has reinvigorated suburban communities nationwide." — Popular Mechanics "Hats off to Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson. Their work is helping us chart a way to better suburbs, better communities, and a better, more fulfilling way of life. Wielding careful research, eye-opening before-and-after case studies, and a panoply of urban design solutions, Retrofitting Suburbia presents a highly convincing argument for both the desirability and the feasibility of redeveloping failed suburban properties into more sustainable places." — from the Foreword by Richard Florida Updated with a new Introduction by the authors and a foreword by Richard Florida, this book is a comprehensive guide book for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and more sustainable places. While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions. Retrofitting Suburbia was named winner in the Architecture & Urban Planning category of the 2009 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards) awarded by The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers