Customer Reviews

New Civic Art : Elements of Town Planning

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If you don't have the first Civic Art, originally published in the twenties, you ought to buy it immediately. Having said that, this book is reiterates many of the same ideas, principles, and messages of the first Civc Art, but from a perspective including all of the developements (and learning from all of the problems) introduced into urban design in the last 80 years. It should be in the library of every architect and of those interested in architecture and urban design. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

The New Civic Art is simply the best reference book available on the art and science of urban planning. Its encyclopedic nature provides an invaluable reference for those practicing in the field or those simply interested in the underlying principles and their application to communities and cities across the country. While providing minimal "textbook" style narrative, the book is arranged in a series of 2,000+ entries illustrating the core theories of new urbanism and its historical predecessors. Each entry is accompanied by a concise description and context upon which to view the example. Needless to say, one could spend a lifetime working through and analyzing the content of this massive volume. And on the other hand, it's a very pleasurable book to simply flip through and enjoy the tremendous variety of perspectives represented.

This book beautifully builds upon the foundation of Hegeman & Peets' Civic Art. Andres Duany is a master at organizing elements of urban design and town planning into this sort of encyclopedia that is easily understood and usable by planners and designers.

The book's chapters are:
1. The Order of the Region
2. The Transformation of Urbanism
3. The Pattern of Urbanism
4. The Public Realm
5. The Private Realm
6. Design at All Scales
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The New Civic Art is essentially examples of urbanism, one after another--mostly built, but with a few never realized--that string together coherently. Each page is usually two or three examples (in the form of a diagram, perspective, photo, plan or section) with a long caption explaining each example. 90% are in black and white. The only essays are the two page introductions to each chapter. Each caption is written by one of the authors, with his or her initials at the end of the caption identifying who wrote it.

As someone who prefers to see, rather than be described to, the great value in this book is the wealth of examples throughout the history of urban design. With that wealth they are able to cover a breadth of urban design and planning issues. Each example was chosen to illustrate a specific point the authors which to make.

The few negatives of the book are:
--Many examples are illustrated with only one diagram photo etc. where an additional one might have helped.
--Some diagrams are hard to discern. This is understandable because each illustration is taken from original source material (be that from the 1800s, or from another country etc). In trying to fit multiple images to pages, some images were reduced too small.
--Some captions did a great job explaining the example, while others did not.
--They make quite a few assertions in the book, almost all of which I agree with, but could have backed many of the assertions up with with evidence.

They have chosen their examples well, and no other book gives you quite as wide ranging illustration of urban design aspects. even though the book is by now 8 years old, it is has not become dated because so many of the examples reach back into the past anyhow.

Although the volume was inspired by another historical volume, this update is pure joy to read if you're into New Urbanism and/or urban design. Well done, comprehensive, a joy to explore.

The formated size is awkward to hold and enjoy, meaning you're better off placing this on a table and reading it from a vertical position than you are to hold it in your hands. But, the format works well in terms of the numerous drawings and illustrations that need space to breath and size to explore.

As usual, Duany's done it again.... shear pleasure it is!