Hi again. I'm making another post asking for more reading recommendations... First thesis deadline is coming very, very soon and I am trying to be as prepared for the submission as possible!
So I've narrowed down my thesis topic to investigating the atrophied/degenrating fringe border between a city and its suburbs. One big issue I've been having, especially when even considering picking a site, is that I don't know enough about the history of suburbia. I have read a few books about what suburbia IS, but not really how it came to be. It is touched on in those books its general economic evolution and reason, but I am looking more particularly for a historical recount and analysis of the ideologies behind suburbia. Now that request is a rather large one and may not even exist in one place, so I'm going to break it up. The history of suburbia or the ideologies behind the evolution of suburbia. These very well may be together in one location, but if they are not, any recommendation on either of the subjects would be greatly appreciated (I guess the "analysis" that I mentioned is the relationship between these two).
This has led me to find the memory and faint murmors of the concepts of "civitas" vs. "urbs". I have read about the differences and relationships between the two before in an essay entitled "Dreams of Order" in I believe Phaidon's awesome book "Brazil's Modern Architecture". I am working on getting that essay back again, but are there any other readings that are good in the analysis between the two concepts? A lecture from the GSD that I just saw by Paul Vittorio Aurelli touched on this, but primarily in a way to emphasize his own projects and methodologies. I believe that the notions of these two concepts are determining factors for the typological differences between the city and suburb, but I am looking to research the concepts more in depth so I can elaborate my views and to support them.
I know that I have been asking for a lot of recommendations recently (3 posts in the last week or so) but I REALLY appreciate any advice that is given or any conversation that is started. I'm finally starting to get more specified in my ideas...!
also recommend looking at maps of actual urban fringe and see how it shifts over time. a land-use map of same area over 10 to 20 years of change would also be very cool background.
Thanks for the feedback jump - Duany's Nation is the first book I read about suburbia. It was great in opening my eyes to the problem, but they are so insistent on keeping the model of suburbia that I overlooked some of the analysis that supported those claims (even though they might have been relavent) as well some very generic analysis, but the clarity and simpleness of the book is what made it so great.
Crabgrass Frontier was on my list of books to check out of the library tomorrow, good to see its name again. I'll be checking out the other books you recommended as well; I'm taking a "different" (?) stance on suburbia which most authors about it do not subscribe to, so I have to filter out the material that is arguing for essentially exactly what they're arguing against (the only way to prevent the plagues of suburbia is to, gasp, stop building it).
The idea for land-use analysis is something very similar to what I was originally thinking of when I was sticking within a dense urban fabric; of analyzing commercial space's economic demographics in terms of permanence and temporality and cross referencing that with the demographics of the inhabitants. Thanks for bringing that idea back up, setting it back on a better track :) I will certainly be doing something of the vein
take a look at "the new suburban history" which was edited by kevin kruse and thomas sugrue... it challenges a lot of the preconceived ideas about suburbs...
also, just to clarify jump's list... crabgrass frontier is by kenneth jackson... fishman's book is bourgeois utopias...
Richard Ingersoll's "Sprawltown" or Lars Lerup's "After The City" may provide some interesting theoretical framings (although neither really delves into the conceptual distinctions between "urbs" and "civitas")
Bill Morrish, when he ran the Design Center for the American Urban Landscape at the University of Minnesota, did extensive studies on first-ring suburbs (the interface you identify). I suggest you spend some time researching his case studies. A few years ago they were available on the DCAUL website, but since Ann Forsyth took over the think tank, they revised the website, and I'm not sure if the studies are still online.
Joseph(?) Hudnut also wrote a book on First Ring Suburbs. I havent read it, but I expect it to be very wonkish, but might be useful.
For a good city to look at, I recommend Winter Park, Florida.
It was a city (now suburb or edge city... that's been completely engulfed by other edge cities) that was essentially a PUD (Planned Urban Development) around an Semi-Ivy League School and a train station.
It is a rare slice of suburbia/urbanity.
What's also even better about it... is that it is the oldest centrally planned city in Florida. It's almost the oldest centrally planned city in the Southeast. Also, there was a statistic I heard about it at one time (not sure if it holds any truth) that it has as many million dollar homes per capita than Beverly Hills.
So, it being incredibly wealthy means that it has an incredible selection of historic maps dating back to inception.
The other bonus is that Louis Comfort Tiffany had a hand in designing most of the college and a hand in helping design most of the streetscapes.
wups. thanks architphil. i always get those two mixed up. shoulda checked my bookshelf ;-)
if you are going to be doing research looking at suburban morphology i would also recommend a book edited by kiril stanilov and brenda case sheer called "suburban form". Within the book Jaqueline Tatom did a very interesting study on how suburban form changed in Lyons, France, while Scheer contributed a very good article that looks at how suburban form changes in response to commercial development along strips, among other things. Not sure how easy this one is to get ahold of as it is really for academics and not for popular consumption...
If your topic is fuzzy deliniations there is also a book that looks at suburbia in germany written by Thomas Sieverts, called "Cities Without Cities: An Interpretation of the Zwischenstadt" This one is quite interesting and well worth reading just to understand that the problem of suburbia is very real even in places like Germany where land use controls and growth even are under much tighter control than in the usa.
Went to the library today, looked at every book that was mentioned that we had (missing a couple, some of which is was disappointed with, primarily newer books -_-). My results:
I checked out 4 books that I think cover a, the wide range of research into suburbia I was looking for. I got Cities of Tomorrow, After the City, Edge City, and a book I found researching online called Architecture and Suburbia. I'm going to start with Architecture and Suburbia as it seems to speak most about the ideological and social notions of suburbia going back ~400 years. Then I'm thinking Cities of Tomorrow (which was recommended to me as well by a phd student here) which gives a more detailed historical analysis of the past ~120 years, then finishing with After the City which seems to be a post-suburbia "this is what it has done to our psyche" book. I figure Edge Cities may come in handy once I start researching sites in particular, but I appreciate all of the recommendations for sites!
The Suburb Reader by Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese is invaluable for the range of information it contains, from original sources from 19th century and earlier, to contemporary analyses and criticism.
Civitas | Urbs + History of Suburbia
Hi again. I'm making another post asking for more reading recommendations... First thesis deadline is coming very, very soon and I am trying to be as prepared for the submission as possible!
So I've narrowed down my thesis topic to investigating the atrophied/degenrating fringe border between a city and its suburbs. One big issue I've been having, especially when even considering picking a site, is that I don't know enough about the history of suburbia. I have read a few books about what suburbia IS, but not really how it came to be. It is touched on in those books its general economic evolution and reason, but I am looking more particularly for a historical recount and analysis of the ideologies behind suburbia. Now that request is a rather large one and may not even exist in one place, so I'm going to break it up. The history of suburbia or the ideologies behind the evolution of suburbia. These very well may be together in one location, but if they are not, any recommendation on either of the subjects would be greatly appreciated (I guess the "analysis" that I mentioned is the relationship between these two).
This has led me to find the memory and faint murmors of the concepts of "civitas" vs. "urbs". I have read about the differences and relationships between the two before in an essay entitled "Dreams of Order" in I believe Phaidon's awesome book "Brazil's Modern Architecture". I am working on getting that essay back again, but are there any other readings that are good in the analysis between the two concepts? A lecture from the GSD that I just saw by Paul Vittorio Aurelli touched on this, but primarily in a way to emphasize his own projects and methodologies. I believe that the notions of these two concepts are determining factors for the typological differences between the city and suburb, but I am looking to research the concepts more in depth so I can elaborate my views and to support them.
I know that I have been asking for a lot of recommendations recently (3 posts in the last week or so) but I REALLY appreciate any advice that is given or any conversation that is started. I'm finally starting to get more specified in my ideas...!
Thank you
Nick
in no particular order, these are pretty good
Robert Bruegman - Sprawl
Christine Boyer - Dreaming The Rational City
Dolores Hayden - Building Suburbia
Robert Fishman - Crabgrass Frontier
William Bogart - Don't Call it Sprawl
Peter Hall - Cities of Tomorrow
Duany - Suburban Nation
also recommend looking at maps of actual urban fringe and see how it shifts over time. a land-use map of same area over 10 to 20 years of change would also be very cool background.
Thanks for the feedback jump - Duany's Nation is the first book I read about suburbia. It was great in opening my eyes to the problem, but they are so insistent on keeping the model of suburbia that I overlooked some of the analysis that supported those claims (even though they might have been relavent) as well some very generic analysis, but the clarity and simpleness of the book is what made it so great.
Crabgrass Frontier was on my list of books to check out of the library tomorrow, good to see its name again. I'll be checking out the other books you recommended as well; I'm taking a "different" (?) stance on suburbia which most authors about it do not subscribe to, so I have to filter out the material that is arguing for essentially exactly what they're arguing against (the only way to prevent the plagues of suburbia is to, gasp, stop building it).
The idea for land-use analysis is something very similar to what I was originally thinking of when I was sticking within a dense urban fabric; of analyzing commercial space's economic demographics in terms of permanence and temporality and cross referencing that with the demographics of the inhabitants. Thanks for bringing that idea back up, setting it back on a better track :) I will certainly be doing something of the vein
Thanks again! I'll post my findings.
take a look at "the new suburban history" which was edited by kevin kruse and thomas sugrue... it challenges a lot of the preconceived ideas about suburbs...
also, just to clarify jump's list... crabgrass frontier is by kenneth jackson... fishman's book is bourgeois utopias...
Richard Ingersoll's "Sprawltown" or Lars Lerup's "After The City" may provide some interesting theoretical framings (although neither really delves into the conceptual distinctions between "urbs" and "civitas")
Hise, Magnetic Los Angeles
Garreau, Edge Cities
Bill Morrish, when he ran the Design Center for the American Urban Landscape at the University of Minnesota, did extensive studies on first-ring suburbs (the interface you identify). I suggest you spend some time researching his case studies. A few years ago they were available on the DCAUL website, but since Ann Forsyth took over the think tank, they revised the website, and I'm not sure if the studies are still online.
Joseph(?) Hudnut also wrote a book on First Ring Suburbs. I havent read it, but I expect it to be very wonkish, but might be useful.
For a good city to look at, I recommend Winter Park, Florida.
It was a city (now suburb or edge city... that's been completely engulfed by other edge cities) that was essentially a PUD (Planned Urban Development) around an Semi-Ivy League School and a train station.
It is a rare slice of suburbia/urbanity.
What's also even better about it... is that it is the oldest centrally planned city in Florida. It's almost the oldest centrally planned city in the Southeast. Also, there was a statistic I heard about it at one time (not sure if it holds any truth) that it has as many million dollar homes per capita than Beverly Hills.
So, it being incredibly wealthy means that it has an incredible selection of historic maps dating back to inception.
The other bonus is that Louis Comfort Tiffany had a hand in designing most of the college and a hand in helping design most of the streetscapes.
wups. thanks architphil. i always get those two mixed up. shoulda checked my bookshelf ;-)
if you are going to be doing research looking at suburban morphology i would also recommend a book edited by kiril stanilov and brenda case sheer called "suburban form". Within the book Jaqueline Tatom did a very interesting study on how suburban form changed in Lyons, France, while Scheer contributed a very good article that looks at how suburban form changes in response to commercial development along strips, among other things. Not sure how easy this one is to get ahold of as it is really for academics and not for popular consumption...
If your topic is fuzzy deliniations there is also a book that looks at suburbia in germany written by Thomas Sieverts, called "Cities Without Cities: An Interpretation of the Zwischenstadt" This one is quite interesting and well worth reading just to understand that the problem of suburbia is very real even in places like Germany where land use controls and growth even are under much tighter control than in the usa.
Update tiime.
Went to the library today, looked at every book that was mentioned that we had (missing a couple, some of which is was disappointed with, primarily newer books -_-). My results:
I checked out 4 books that I think cover a, the wide range of research into suburbia I was looking for. I got Cities of Tomorrow, After the City, Edge City, and a book I found researching online called Architecture and Suburbia. I'm going to start with Architecture and Suburbia as it seems to speak most about the ideological and social notions of suburbia going back ~400 years. Then I'm thinking Cities of Tomorrow (which was recommended to me as well by a phd student here) which gives a more detailed historical analysis of the past ~120 years, then finishing with After the City which seems to be a post-suburbia "this is what it has done to our psyche" book. I figure Edge Cities may come in handy once I start researching sites in particular, but I appreciate all of the recommendations for sites!
I got a lot of reading to do...
The Suburb Reader by Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese is invaluable for the range of information it contains, from original sources from 19th century and earlier, to contemporary analyses and criticism.
I would not dismiss Dolores Hayden's books. They are quick reads and give a great historical overview as well as case studies to of what worked, when.
you might also check out "retrofitting suburbia" by ellen dunham-jones...
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