True West:

Authentic Development Patterns for Small Towns and Rural Areas By Christopher J. Duerksen and James van Hemert American Planning Association, 2003, 248 pp., paperback. $59.95. “The Old West is rapidly giving way to a New West that bears little resemblance to the past,” write Christopher J. Duerksen, managing director of Clarion Associates, a Denver-based planning and design consulting firm, and James van Hemert, chief planner for Douglas County, Colorado. With the population of 11 Western states from Colorado to the coast having risen in the past decade by 10 million, or 20 percent, they argue that the region needs to rediscover its traditional development patterns before the West’s character is irrevocably altered. Part of the problem, say the authors of True West, is that “Most work and thinking on rural design has focused on ‘eastern’ or ‘midwestern’ landscapes” — areas where the topography is less dramatic, the atmosphere moister, the houses more easily hidden amid profuse stands of trees. Duerksen and van Hemert attempt to remedy the lack of attention to the West by outlining the chief physical traits of Spanish colonial, American Indian, Mormon, railroad, and gridiron town development, especially in relatively arid landscapes. They provide case studies of “appropriate modern developments than can serve as models,” most of them in the mountain and desert states of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Historically, many Western areas were laid out with streets so wide that you could turn a wagon around in them. Consequently, one of the first things a new urbanist would wonder about is whether the tradition of constructing extremely broad streets should continue. The answer that Duerksen and van Hemert provide is somewhat frustrating. The authors suggest designing narrow streets — with the buildings and trees close to the public rights of way — in hot climates where shade is crucial to livability. But they also make the following puzzling recommendation: “In places where the winters are long and cold, construct wide streets for maximum sunlight penetration.” Well, how wide would that be? And how should people calculate the proper dimensions? Those questions are not adequately dealt with. Lacking sufficient instructions, some Westerners may end up with the kind of street I lived on in Logan, Utah, in the early 1970s — one so ridiculously wide that my wife and I rarely had a spontaneous conversation with the neighbors who lived on the far side of its indifferently maintained expanse of asphalt and gravel. True West often doesn’t delve deeply enough into its subjects. On architectural form, the authors advise: “Design buildings that mimic the profiles of the natural landscape; in steep, mountainous areas, steeply pitched rooflines are appropriate.” This strikes me as simpleminded. If dozens or hundreds of houses with pitched roofs are visible against a majestic mountain backdrop, they may simply emphasize how puny, in the overall scheme of the universe, the works of human beings tend to be. A subdivision chock-full of striving little roofs is apt to look vain as it attempts to match the Rocky Mountains. Duerksen and van Hemert present many design recommendations, which take into account factors such as climate, topography, and views. True West will be a useful introduction for citizens appointed to local planning boards without having first done much study of planning and design. Individuals with more training and experience are likely to have qualms. What’s needed is a more nuanced guide, drawing on the most penetrating new urban thinking about the land of wide-open spaces. u