Why are so many of our urban environments so resistant to change? The author tackles this question in her comprehensive guide for planners, designers, and students concerned with how cities take shape. This book provides a fundamental understanding of how physical environments are created, changed, and transformed through ordinary processes over ti

First published in 1992, this book collects together the papers presented at the International Symposium on Design Review which was held to address the growing tendency of local governments to institute programs of aesthetic control. The editor argues that the widespread adoption of design review processes in the years preceding the conference necessitated thoroughgoing professional criticism and a number of areas of debate are identified and addressed in the subsequent papers. Are the difficulties experienced by planners, community activists and architects with the process due to its relative youth or inherent flaws in the entire concept? How should mechanical problems like time and expense, the ease with which the process can be manipulated, and general inefficiencies in the system be resolved? More intricate problems are also addressed, such as: who has the power to judge the aesthetic quality of a building, whether design review infringes on the rights of the individual especially under the First Amendment, whether the design review process is "fair", and the difficulty for the reviewer of deciding what is right and what is wrong having taken into account factors that can be highly subjective or contradict more practical concerns.

First published in 1992, this book collects together the papers presented at the International Symposium on Design Review which was held to address the growing tendency of local governments to institute programs of aesthetic control. The editor argues that the widespread adoption of design review processes in the years preceding the conference necessitated thoroughgoing professional criticism and a number of areas of debate are identified and addressed in the subsequent papers. Are the difficulties experienced by planners, community activists and architects with the process due to its relative youth or inherent flaws in the entire concept? How should mechanical problems like time and expense, the ease with which the process can be manipulated, and general inefficiencies in the system be resolved? More intricate problems are also addressed, such as: who has the power to judge the aesthetic quality of a building, whether design review infringes on the rights of the individual especially under the First Amendment, whether the design review process is "fair", and the difficulty for the reviewer of deciding what is right and what is wrong having taken into account factors that can be highly subjective or contradict more practical concerns.

Why are so many of our urban environments so resistant to change? Brenda Case Scheer tackles this question in her comprehensive guide for planners, designers, and students concerned with how cities take shape. This book provides a fundamental understanding of how physical environments are created, changed, and transformed through ordinary processes over time. Most of the built environment adheres to a few physical patterns, or types, that occur over and over. Planners and architects, consciously and unconsciously, refer to building types as they work through urban design problems and regulations. Suitable for professional planners, architects, urban designers, and students, The Evolution of Urban Form includes practical examples of how typology is critical to analytical, design, and regulatory situations.

Contents:
Introduction: Postwar Growth and Suburban Development Patterns. Part 1. The Changing Form of Suburbs. Introduction 1. Community, Modernity, and Urban Change in Japan and the USA: Toyokawa and Cupertino in the Late Twentieth Century 2. Complexity and Contradiction in the Ageing Early Postwar Suburbs of Québec City 3. Morphological Diversity in the Squatter Settlements of Rio de Janeiro. Part 2. Understanding the Elements and the Patterns. Introduction 4. Making a Metropolitan Landscape: Lyons 1812-1994 5. Radial Street as a Timeline. Part 3. The Effect of Planning. Introduction 6. Transformations of Space: A Retrospective on Public Housing in Singapore 7. Building Types and Urban Fabric of Rome's Outer Suburbs: From Reading to Planning 8. Planning for Sprawl: The Evolution of a Regional Shopping Center. Part 4. The Reconstruction of the Suburbs. Introduction 9. The Transformation of Large Postwar Housing Areas in Sweden - Adaptation to a Blend of New and Old Planning Ideas 10. Suburban Morphology and Portland's Urban Growth Boundary 11. Conserving the Suburb: Mechanisms, Tensions and Results. Index.