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Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream Hardcover – March 20, 2000

by Andres Duany (Author), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (Author), Jeff Speck (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 309 ratings
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A manifesto by America's most controversial and celebrated town planners, proposing an alternative model for community design.

There is a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and to replace the automobile-based settlement patterns of the past fifty years with a return to more traditional planning principles. This movement stems not only from the realization that sprawl is ecologically and economically unsustainable but also from a growing awareness of sprawl's many victims: children, utterly dependent on parental transportation if they wish to escape the cul-de-sac; the elderly, warehoused in institutions once they lose their driver's licenses; the middle class, stuck in traffic for two or more hours each day.

Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of this movement, and in Suburban Nation they assess sprawl's costs to society, be they ecological, economic, aesthetic, or social. It is a lively, thorough, critical lament, and an entertaining lesson on the distinctions between postwar suburbia-characterized by housing clusters, strip shopping centers, office parks, and parking lots-and the traditional neighborhoods that were built as a matter of course until mid-century. It is an indictment of the entire development community, including governments, for the fact that America no longer builds towns. Most important, though, it is that rare book that also offers solutions.
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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    North Point Press
  4. Publication date
    March 20, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    8.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0865475571
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0865475571
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Progressive town planners Duany and coauthors share the fruits of their extensive experiences designing new neighborhoods and community revitalization projects in this cogent and illuminating investigation into the nature of sprawl and the failure of suburbs. They mince no words in condemning the soulless, "repetitive and forgettable" landscape of subdivisions, shopping malls, office parks, and congested roadways that ring our cities, and articulate with great precision exactly how and why such places are detrimental to social health. They contrast traditional neighborhoods--"mixed-used, pedestrian-friendly communities" --where people of diverse backgrounds and economic levels interact, with suburbia, where housing, work, shopping, and public facilities are segregated from one another, so people are forced to drive everywhere. Using numerous examples, the authors explain how and why sprawl has occurred, discuss why the quality of balkanized suburban life is so deplorably low, and offer suggestions for a more viable approach to planning in the immediate future. Place matters, and we can do so much better. Donna Seaman

Review

“An essential text for our time . . . Not only a passionately argued, carefully reasoned dissection of the mess that is becoming man-made America but also a clear program of steps that can be taken to enhance the humanity of both our suburbs and our cities while conserving our rapidly dwindling countryside. Everyone who cares about the future of our American way of life should read this book.”—Robert A.M. Stern, Dean, Yale School of Architecture

“[This book offers] a clear-eyed, closely reasoned description by its founders of the most important movement in American architecture and city making of this generation: the New Urbanism, based not upon the ‘nostalgia’ for which it has been unjustly criticized but upon solid architectural, historical, and sociological analysis, and hard common sense.”—Vincent Scully

"Suburban Nation dissects the physical design of the suburbs brilliantly . . . [the authors] set forth more clearly than anyone has done in our time the elements of good town planning."--The New Yorker

"A powerful manifesto . . . No one has yet produced a work as pithy or likely to win converts to the cause as this briskly written and persuasive brief."--The Boston Sunday Globe

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Point Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 20, 2000
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0865475571
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0865475571
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 309 ratings

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  1. Jeff Speck

    Jeff Speck

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  2. Andres Duany

    Andres Duany

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
309 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and appreciate its information quality, with one review noting it provides lots of data to back up its opinions. Moreover, the book receives positive feedback for its importance in urban planning, with one customer highlighting its value for students entering planning and urban design fields. However, the writing style and author personality receive mixed reactions from customers.

Select to learn more

ReadabilityInformation qualityScholarly contentUrban planningIdeasWriting styleAuthor personalityEffectiveness
22 customers mention "Readability"21 positive1 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and fun to read casually.

"...and examples of successful and unsuccessful development make this a good read, but the kindle version has quite a few transcription errors that..." Read more

"Identifies important factors leading to sprawl in an easy to read and understand format...." Read more

"...Very fun to read casually, but full of information backing the author's points. It will change how you see driving to work everyday...." Read more

"...This book is an eye-opening read that reveals the harmful nature of American suburban sprawl...." Read more

17 customers mention "Information quality"16 positive1 negative

Customers find the book informative, with one customer noting it provides lots of data to back up opinions, while another appreciates the authors' use of hard facts.

"...It has very detailed descriptions of how suburbs are designed and built, and how they lead to traffic, sprawl, and neighborhoods lacking in sprawl...." Read more

"Terrific analysis of how too much of the visual landscape of the United States turned into highway hell, of what the alternative might be, and of..." Read more

"As an urban planning major I found this book fascinating and informational. His writing style is easy to read and it was a quick read for me...." Read more

"This book has plenty of information on what went wrong in building our communities and what can be done to make them better...." Read more

16 customers mention "Scholarly content"16 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the scholarly content of the book, with one customer describing it as an outstanding contribution to intelligent efforts, while another notes it serves as an excellent primer on smart growth.

"Great book and really eye opening! I needed to buy this for my Landscape Architecture class at UC Davis. This is a great deal and a great read...." Read more

"...A definite read for any County or City Commission. A very thought provoking book." Read more

"...I found it scholarly, helpful, and hopeful for cities in the future." Read more

"...The project references help illustrate and justify the concepts. The variety of topics and length make it easy to pick up and grasp for any instant." Read more

15 customers mention "Urban planning"14 positive1 negative

Customers appreciate the book's approach to urban planning, with one customer noting that the authors avoid heavy jargon, making it accessible.

"A great refresher and the past and present town planning practices and why US cities look and behave the way they do." Read more

"...This book is a good critical look at the cities we build and live in, in America. I found it scholarly, helpful, and hopeful for cities in the future." Read more

"...of both outlining ways to develop that do not induce sprawl, promote neighborhoods, and encourage people to both create and live in places that are..." Read more

"...This is especially pertinent for students entering planning and urban design fields, city planning staff, development authorities, smaller towns &..." Read more

4 customers mention "Ideas"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's ideas, with one mentioning it covers various topics and provides examples to support its points.

"Lots of ideas that I have never thought of!" Read more

"...The variety of topics and length make it easy to pick up and grasp for any instant." Read more

"...their anecdotes and stories about things that have worked, good ideas that failed, and bad ideas that failed in an epic manner...." Read more

"...The authors lay their ideas pretty easily and always point to examples...." Read more

6 customers mention "Writing style"4 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style of the book, with some finding it easy to read while others note awkward sentence structures.

"...His writing style is easy to read and it was a quick read for me. A need book for any city planner." Read more

"...; Even worse, the book is poorly researched -- its written like a high school paper, with a footnote here or there to illustrate points, except that..." Read more

"...up just plowing through it because it's actually very interesting, well written and easy to read...." Read more

"...important factors leading to sprawl in an easy to read and understand format...." Read more

5 customers mention "Author personality"3 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the author's personality in the book, with one customer appreciating their passion, while another finds them very opinionated.

"Great book. The author's passion and personality shine through the writing." Read more

"Author is VERY opinionated, but in a sense that is what makes the book exciting...." Read more

"...its nonfiction status, it reads very easily and the authors frequently make it entertaining..." Read more

"...And lastly, despite the book being mostly apolitical, the authors’ bias and lack of expertise in a particular area does creep in from time to time,..." Read more

5 customers mention "Effectiveness"2 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the effectiveness of the book, with some appreciating its solutions and alternatives, while others find it less effective.

"...less effective and borders on being one-sided and polemic. In one example, the authors state that GM and others..." Read more

"I wish the title wasn't so gloomy, but the book does off a lot of solutions and presents information in a way that I feel really drives the points,..." Read more

"...A square book doesn't work, and a lot of space on each page was wasted." Read more

"...a lot of books that define problems, it actually contains working solutions and alternatives...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • R. Bono
    5.0 out of 5 stars Like It Is
    Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    This book has, and will continue to have, continuing validity as America seeks more sustainable solutions for its suburban culture. The post WW II suburban American pattern....the "American Dream" of the 20th Century....is based upon the notion of separating all uses from one another, and then connecting them by roads. It's an incredibly expensive, energy consumptive, desensitizing, and ultimately unsustainable way to live. It's a culture that's entrenched in voting patterns, politics, government, and in the development, building, and investment communities.

    The antidote is not fully covered here, but Duany is clear that it calls for nothing less than a complete re-commitment to traditional building patterns, of denser cities, and towns, and villages, and hamlets. It posits these as models for a happier, wiser, and more sustainable future. Today's American suburbs are neither urban enough, or rural enough. Planning and design solutions that enhance, instead of destroy, both the urban and the rural, will be requirements of the future.

    This book will have a permanent role in the understanding of where we have been, and where we are going. It's necessary, and even important reading, but it's not a blueprint for all planning issues. The comprehensive challenges, which we face, will also call for a revolution in thinking for agriculture, and for the natural environment....both, also in crisis....and both, not fully considered, in this book.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Jason Stokes
    5.0 out of 5 stars A concise outline of how to create development to combat sprawl
    Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    The authors do an excellent job of both outlining ways to develop that do not induce sprawl, promote neighborhoods, and encourage people to both create and live in places that are the antithesis of sprawl. I appreciated their anecdotes and stories about things that have worked, good ideas that failed, and bad ideas that failed in an epic manner.

    They are clear to show examples of how unintended consequences have derailed previous idealistic methods of combating sprawl, as well as examples of how (typically their) ideas have successfully fought sprawl. Adding parking to streets - slows down traffic - makes the area livable again. Who would have thought!?

    All in all, an excellent history of why we live in sprawl, how we can work against it, and a great book for developers and architects to understand that their business doesn't have to be all suburban office park & subdivision focused.
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Message, A Pretty Good Execution
    Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2022
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Overall, this is a great book that succinctly gets a message across that most of us already feel on a day-to-day basis but cannot articulate. American towns and cities are miserable. Bureaucracy and fools proclaiming themselves wise have turned our landscape into an inefficient and demoralizing dystopia of asphalt, exhaust, and cheap imitations of the great buildings that came before us.

    That said, there are a few things holding the book back. Firstly, the authors have a tendency to put a great amount of information into footnotes. Sometimes as much as a third of a page is in the footnotes below it. I do not like this practice as it interrupts the flow of reading. Secondly, the illustrations in the book are very small and very low resolution, given the nature of the book it could use larger pictures to illustrate some of the things the text is talking about. And lastly, despite the book being mostly apolitical, the authors’ bias and lack of expertise in a particular area does creep in from time to time, especially in their discussion on fire departments.

    The authors insinuate that fire engines are needlessly large because fire marshals (the fact that they said fire marshals, who inspect buildings for code, and not fire chiefs, who are responsible for their departments equipment and personnel shows their ignorance on the subject) are men and they are “comparing the size of their equipment.” They then quip that more female fire marshals might reverse this trend, which is insultingly low cunning. Never mind the fact that I’m sure none of the authors has ever worked on a fire engine or understands what it does or how it does it. Building a machine capable of pumping thousands of gallons of water at hundreds of PSI while also carrying literal tons of equipment and personnel is not something that can be condensed down to the size of a Prius. The authors would be much better off restricting their sly remarks to the things that they know and not the things they know nothing about.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Scott Covington
    5.0 out of 5 stars Still relevant after a decade
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2014
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Identifies important factors leading to sprawl in an easy to read and understand format. Even though this book is over a decade old, the factors contributing to sprawl have not changed. Unfortunately, the policies that contribute to sprawl haven't changed either.

    As a resident of Northern Virginia, we live with the consequences described in "Suburban Nation" -- insufferable gridlocked traffic, lack of alternative transportation -- a patchwork attempt at resolving these issues does not work. Our County Governments continue to permit low density housing without adequate proffers or designs described in this book. Frustrating to see in action, when the guidelines pointed out are so obvious, easy to follow and in the end, cheaper for the developer.

    A definite read for any County or City Commission. A very thought provoking book.
    5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Love living in Steveston
    5.0 out of 5 stars A guide to New Urbanism. A must read for any student of urban planning.
    Reviewed in Canada on October 11, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I've bought numerous copies of this book to give as gifts to newly elected municipal officials. Inertesting how some of them really study it and understand their role in shaping the community we live in, and how some can't be bothered to read it at all. Oh well, you can lead a horse to water...
    Report
  • Heribert Eisinger
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone living in a subdivision
    Reviewed in Canada on August 11, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Very enlightening, well researched, a wealth of information, I will forever see subdivisions in a different light. It also explains the effects of living in suburbia on our children. Explains “cul-de-suc kids” and why the collector roads between subdivisions are always jamed full with traffic.
    Report
  • leonardo
    4.0 out of 5 stars History
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2024
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    A interesting but now date read, giving a perspective.
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  • LSCC
    4.0 out of 5 stars Utile pour la question de ce monde parallèle
    Reviewed in Canada on July 21, 2019
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Ouvrage intéressant faisant le portrait d’un monde qui a pris tellement d’importance.
    Report
  • Phil
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on June 15, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Great condition, great price, what more could you ask for.
    Report