Design First: Design-based Planning for Communities

David Walters and Linda Luise Brown Architectural Press, 2004, 277 pp., paperback $44.95 Urban designers have benefited greatly from publications that have become available over the past few years. Some books are practical manuals that remain open during the design process in university studios and professional offices. Others help designers communicate with clients and/or the community. Still others give students and professionals insights into turning theory into built form. Design First is written to serve all three purposes. The book is organized into four parts: History, Theory, Practice, and Case Studies. Since four of the five Case Studies are the work of The Lawrence Group, of which at least one of the authors, David Walters, is a member, the book falls into the classic format epitomized by Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. In simple terms, the history and theory are laid out, principles are stated and translated into practice, and examples in the form of professional designs are presented. The scope of the material is exhaustive. The authors attempt to cover every imaginable issue or technique in the current new urbanist, and anti-new urbanist, arsenal. Not only are they presented, but also a large percentage of the prose is used in explaining the ramifications, false accusations, applications and usefulness of current design theory and practice. In this one volume we have a history and critique of urban and suburban form, the New Urbanism movement and Smart Growth, plus learning from the built world (after Sitte), dealing with cultural diversity, and the theory and practice of community based planning. On top of this, the Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Smart Growth Principles, a design-based code and an example of development guidelines are included as appendices. The authors’ stated aim for the book is to guide well-meaning citizens: “…intelligent men and women, concerned about the future of their community but unsure how to achieve the desired improvement.” The magnitude of the material — the Plan of Chicago is more than a hundred pages shorter — and style of prose, somewhat academic, goes against this effort. One could hand this book to a citizen’s group or an elected official, but to achieve the desired educative effect it would have to be marked as to those parts applicable to the problem at hand. However, it’s just those qualities that make the book very useful as a textbook in urban design education. While academics, such as the reviewer, have a keen interest in cross-cultural comparisons these are distractions to the community the authors wish to enlighten. The book’s purpose would be better served if the authors did not cover academic ground while attempting to play to a popular audience. The Modernist vs. Traditionalist argument can be most informative to the public when it is grounded in how it affects their daily lives. This is covered in the book but it is hidden within a sea of academic history and arcane theory. coverage of the issues Putting this issue of accessibility aside, the book is compelling, insightful and rigorous in its coverage of the issues that face the urban designer and his or her attempt to build the Good City. The sections on the consequences of planning policy on cities, and the relationship of those policies to design, should be required reading in every planning school. The authors make a very strong case for the design-based code as the primary tool for sound urban development. The Case Studies section of the book compellingly relates professional work with the body of theory presented in the middle chapters. The work demonstrates how the community design process can be a part of first-rate urbanism and development. The presentation is clear and for the most part well illustrated. It is from the title that this book has its most clear message: design should be the foundation and the driving force behind growth and development policy. In this most important point is the clear statement: “What is missing (from development) is any sense of design. Contemporary suburbia has been planned to death and more planning will not improve it.” This is a bold statement to a world that still discounts the value of design as an integral part of quality growth. The public that wants a better place to live needs to know this, and this book supports this cause. This book will naturally find its way into the classroom, the design office, and in that bag of tomes lugged to charrettes. It is a very good reference and a useful compendium of good urban design practice. The authors should consider producing an edited version of Design First specifically tailored toward the nonprofessional audience they wish to reach. u Mark Schimmenti practices urban design and architecture in Nashville, Tennessee and is the Hart Freeland Roberts Scholar at the University of Tennessee College of Architecture in Knoxville.