Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature

This book is a must have for anyone serious about revitalizing our ways of planning our cities and neighborhoods. Douglas Farr is great; he led the effort to create a LEED Neighborhood Development rating system. He is a true pioneer of sustainable urbanism! I met him personally at a LEED ND conference in Michigan; he was so nice and even signed my copy of the book. This means a lot to me as a architecture graduate student and an aspiring designer; I will keep this book very close to me as I continue my career and use the knowledge I gained from this book to better communities.

Doug Farr shows a comprehensive understanding of sustainability rarely seen in this movement. Too often different professions work on greening their product in isolation. While they may be doing wonderful designs they are not linking with other elements and professions to make these improvements complimentary and exponential. A LEED Platinum building built on farm land miles from the city center is not a comprehensive solution (and should really not be able to get a platinum rating.) Mr. Farr shows how to create an integrated approach to building where the "green" structure is consciously tied into the communities' transportation, utilities, culture, and work life creating a truly sustainable environment. Every public official and city planner should read this book.

this book is written by the chair of LEED ND core commitee, and its foreword is written by Andres Duany, so it has an excellent pedigree for an introduction to New Urbanism. The knowledge in it is in a very useable format for architects and planners . It is one of the most useful references I have found to get up to speed on the developing field of New Urbanism.

great primer for urban renewal - the city hand in hand with its environment

design elements are well-explained with graphics

I am an architecture thesis student interested in community-centered design. I bought this on a whim because it seemed relevant and was well-reviewed, but in the week I've had it has exponentially improved my knowledge on the subject and really guided my project thus far. It does a very nice job of synthesizing various concepts from architecture, planning, and environmental studies into a manageable and pleasant little package. Highly recommend!

It will be given to the Georgia Institute of Public Affairs' library in Tblisi.

It is a very good book but the structure of it a bit disorganized. Nevertheless, I used this book fo my thesis argument, so 4 stars.