New 'New Urbanism' Publications

There is a very original essay written by Robert Beauregard, chair of the Graduate School of Management at the New School. It is called: New Urbanism: Ambiguous Certainties. It is strenuously neutral (unusual for an academic). It speaks about how unusual we are in being certain about our beliefs in a post-modern, relativistic world. He suspects that this is what makes the New Urbanists so effective. Then there is the new book by Urban Design Associates entitled, The Urban Design Handbook. Its principal author, most of you know, is Ray Gindroz. As with all the UDA documents, it is stunningly clear, rational and didactic. It is beautifully laid out by "our" graphic designer, Terri Wolfe. It purports to be an office manual - instructions for the employees for the UDA practice. It is indeed that - in fact, it is a great model of what such a practice should be - but it is much, much more. This book is essential reading for practitioners. Then there is the Journal of Urban Design Vol. 7, No. 3. This is an international publication edited by Taner Oc of Nottingham University and Michael Southworth of Berkeley. On the board are David Gordon, John Barnett, Ann Moudon and Gary Hack, who are quite sympathetic to the New Urbanism This particular special issue is dedicated to the Transect and the New Urbanism. It was edited by Emily Talen. It includes an introduction by me, explaining the Transect, and another by Emily, positioning it within the American planning tradition. There are two complimentary essays by Professor Sidney Bower and by Todd Zimmerman and Laurie Volk, arriving at similar conclusions regarding Transect-based living preferences. Also included is an analysis of the New Urbanist environmental strategy in Canada. Perhaps the best essay is by Cliff Ellis of the University of Kansas. It refutes quite thoroughly the academic critique of the New Urbanism. It is watching a match, with a graduate student taking on the academic champs and effortlessly beating them at their own game.

Last is a comparison between American New Urbanist practices and policy in the UK. The Journal and UDA's book are essential to the New Urbanist library.