The American City

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The definitive guide to urban planning and design--completely updated and now in full color

In the Third Edition of The American City: What Works, What Doesn't, award-winning city planner and renowned urban scholar Alexander Garvin examines more than 350 programs and projects that have been implemented nationwide in 150 cities and suburbs, evaluates their successes and failures, and offers relevant lessons learnedfrom them.

Nearly all of the book's 650 illustrations are now in full color and consist almost entirely of photographs, maps, and diagrams produced especially for the Third Edition. Garvin discusses major urban initiatives that have emerged over the past two decades, such as Chicago's Millennium Park, Houston's Uptown Business District, and Metropolitan Denver's FasTracks multicounty rapid transitnetwork. He reexamines the wide range of places and strategies covered in the previous edition, offering new analyses and insights. A new chapter on retrofitting the city for a modern commercial economy is included.

This practical guide presents six key ingredients of project success--market, location, design, financing, time, and entrepreneurship--and explains how to combine these elements in a mutually reinforcing manner. Garvin demonstrates how the synthesis of individual and private-sector efforts, community-level action, and broad-based government policy can--and has--achieved urban and suburban regeneration.

COVERAGE INCLUDES:

• A realistic approach to city and suburban planning
• Ingredients of success--market, location, design, financing, time, and entrepreneurship
• Parks, playgrounds, and open space
• Retail shopping
• Palaces for the people--libraries, stadiums, museums, and other public facilities
• Retrofitting the city for a modern commercial economy
• The life and death of the City of Tomorrow--implications of national urban redevelopment programs
• Downtown management
• Increasing the housing supply
• Reducing housing costs
• Housing rehabilitation
• Clearing the slums
• Revitalizing neighborhoods
• Residential suburbs
• New-towns-in-town
• New-towns-in-the-country
• Land use regulation
• Historic preservation
• Comprehensive planning

"Now in full color! The third edition of THE standard reference work on urban planning and design features new projects and the latest developments in the industry.In the Third Edition of The American City: What Works, What Doesn't, practicing city planner and noted urban scholar Alexander Garvin surveys what has been done to improve America's cities over the past 100 years--analyzing more than 300 programs and projects. This fully updated edition presents newly named and reorganized chapters, the latest statistical information on existing projects, new and updated illustrations, and new projects that have been completed in the decade since the previous edition was published.Taking a rare multidisciplinary approach, Garvin shows how the combination of individual and private-sector efforts, community-level action, and broad-based government policy can and has achieved urban regeneration. He explains that by studying and learning from the past, we can solve modern crises such as the scarcity of public open space, the lack of safe, affordable housing, the degradation of the environment, the erosion of the tax base, and countless other problems plague our cities and suburbs. The book presents six ingredients of project success--market, location, design, financing, entrepreneurship, and time.New to this Edition: Now in full color New sections--Downtown Strategies; Housing Strategies; Suburban Strategies; Regulatory Strategies--and section introductions New developments such as the subprime mortgage crisis New projects, including redevelopment of the World Trade Center site; Atlantic Station in Atlanta; Millennium Park in Chicago; Highline in NYC Reworked, renamed, and reorganized chapters Updated statistics 85 new illustrations and nearly 100 updated illustrations "--

Alexander Garvin has combined a career in urban planning and real estate with teaching, architecture, and public service. He is currently President and CEO of AGA Public Realm Strategists. Between 1996 and 2005 he was Managing Director for Planning of NYC2012, the committee to bring the Summer Olympics to New York in 2012. During 2002-2003, he was Vice President for Planning, Design and Development of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Over the last 44 years he has held prominent positions in five New York City administrations, including Deputy Commissioner of Housing and City Planning Commissioner.

Garvin is Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning and Management at Yale University, where he has taught a wide range of subjects, including Introduction to the Study of the City, which for more than 46 years has remained one of the most popular courses in Yale College. In addition, he teaches two courses in the School of Architecture, including a seminar on Intermediate Planning and Development.

Among other honors, Garvin has received the 2012 Award of Merit from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the 2004 Distinguished Service Award from the New York City Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA). The first edition of The American City won the 1996 AIA Book Award in Urbanism.

Garvin is also the author of Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities and The Planning Game: Lessons from Great Cities. He earned his B.A., M.Arch., and M.U.S. from Yale University.