Product Description

Now available in an updated, expanded second edition, People Places is a fully illustrated, ASLA award-winning book that offers research-based guidelines and recommendations for creating more usable and enjoyable public open spaces of all kinds.

This new edition of People Places contains a chapter-by-chapter review of the literature, a completely new color-photo section, 50 new black and white illustrations, a new chapter on post-occupancy evaluation, case studies, and a discussion of accessibility issues, including ADA regulations and universal design. In addition, updated and new information on seven types of urban open space are included: urban plazas, neighborhood parks, mini and vest-pocket parks, campus outdoor spaces, in housing and outdoor spaces for the elderly, child-care, and hospital outdoor spaces.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #763980 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
people places Second Edition Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space edited by Clare Cooper Marcus and Carolyn Francis A resurgence in the use of public space continues throughout North America and many other parts of the world. Neighborhoods have become more outspoken in their demands for appropriate park designs; corporations have witnessed the value of providing outdoor spaces for employee lunch-hour use; the rising demand for child care has prompted increased awareness of the importance of developmentally appropriate play and learning environments; and increased attention is being focused on the specific outdoor space needs for the elderly, college students, and hospital patients and staff. Now available in an updated, expanded second edition, People Places is a fully illustrated, award-winning book that offers research-based guidelines and recommendations for creating more usable and enjoyable public open spaces of all kinds. People Places analyzes and summarizes existing research on how urban open spaces are actually used, offering design professionals and students alike an easily understood, easily applied guide to creating people-friendly places. Seven types of urban open space are discussed: urban plazas, neighborhood parks, miniparks and vest-pocket parks, campus outdoor spaces, outdoor spaces in housing for the elderly, child-care outdoor spaces, and hospital outdoor spaces. People Places contains a chapter-by-chapter review of the literature, illustrative case studies, and design guidelines specific to each type of space. People Places has a number of features that can be easily incorporated into the design process:

• Clear, readable translations of existing research on people’s use of outdoor spaces.
• Performance-based design recommendations that specify key relationships between design and use.
• Design review checklists that help readers plan and critique designs.
• A clearly organized, concise format equally useful to the design practitioner and the design student.

The newly revised edition of People Places also includes:

• Discussion of accessibility issues, including ADA regulations and the concept of universal design; and of design responses aimed at crime reduction.
• Procedures for conducting post-occupancy evaluations of designed outdoor spaces.
• Updated and new information on each type of outdoor space, with special attention to hospitals, child care facilities, and campus outdoor spaces where specific advances have occurred since 1990.
• A completely new color-photo section and 50 new black and white illustrations.

Winner of the Merit Award in Communication from the American Society of Landscape Architects, People Places is an essential working tool for landscape architects and architects, city planners, urban designers, neighborhood groups, and anyone else concerned with the quality of urban open space.

About the Author
About The Editors

• Clare Cooper Marcus is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also co-principal of a consulting partnership providing user-needs analysis to design firms. Ms. Marcus is the author of Easter Hill Village: Some Social Implications of Design (1975), co-author of Housing as if People Mattered (1986), author of House as a Mirror of Self (1995), and co-author of the forthcoming Healing Gardens (1998).
• Carolyn Francis has taught in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.As co-principal of a consulting partnership with Ms. Marcus, she provides consulting input to a variety of design and planning projects, with particular emphasis on participatory processes and the needs of children.

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Customer Reviews

If you are a not a specialist, this book is great.
I read this book as part of a research project I was doing about the design of college campuses. I found it to be extremely helpful in my project and I plan on refering to it in the future; I am pursuing a Master's of Landscape Architecture. What I liked about this book is two-fold:

1. Each chapter is a self-contained guide to designing a plaza, park, campus, or playground with people in mind. This important to me becuase I try to focus my designs around the people who will be using them. Each chapter gives useful design tips and helps about the given topic.

2. This book was academic while remaining readable. The authors refer to studies relevent to the topic at hand, but do not become bogged down in theoretical nonsense.

I recommend buying it to anyone who would like a well-organized general design reference book. I would not recommend it to anyone who needs in depth information on any specific topic covered in the book. Check it out from the library if that is your intent.

People Places
The book is excellent, but the extra $15 I paid to view the book online before it arrived was not worth the money. (only chapter titles and brief excerpts came up, or nothing at all would come up... disappointing)