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National
''Visualizing Density'' Book Illustrates How Good Design Is Critical to Success of Compact Growth
''We have two real choices for future development: We can grow more compactly or we can continue to sprawl across the landscape at great economic, environmental, and social cost,'' commented Urban Land Institute (ULI) Senior Resident Fellow Ed McMahon on ''Visualizing Density,'' a 160-page book written and richly illustrated by landscape architect-land planner Julie Campoli and pilot-aerial photographer Alex S. MacLean, and just published by the Cambridge-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
An outgrowth of their Lincoln Institute course series launched in 2003, the book includes an essay on the nation's density challenge, a photographic manual for proper density plans and designs, and a catalog of more than 250 neighborhoods listed by various housing density per acre, each shown in sets of four close-up, context, wide view and plan photos, with an attached CD useful for public presentations.
Although many Americans, especially baby boomers and young professionals, increasingly appreciate the advantages of compact, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, others invariably blame density for more neighborhood traffic, service demands and other strains, the authors note, confident that better urban design would remedy such real or imaginary drawbacks.
''We don't have a density problem in this country; we have a design problem,'' stressed Julie Campoli, principal of Terra Firma Urban Design in Burlington, Vermont.
''We tend to overestimate the density of monotonous, amenity-poor developments and underestimate the density of well-designed, attractive projects,'' pointed out Alex S. MacLean, principal of Landslides Aerial Photography in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Their peers and early reviewers agree, expecting ''Visualizing Density'' to help clarify the complex issue and eliminate some public misconceptions.
''This book makes an abstract concept -- density -- completely real and easy to understand, to feel,'' observed Middlebury College-Vermont Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben, author of ''Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future,'' Times Books, 2007.
''Campoli and MacLean show us how we can have it all -- communities that are beautiful, affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly,'' said Smart Growth America Executive Director Don Chen. ''This book should be required reading for anyone who cares about the built environment.'' -- PRNewswire 3/12/2007
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