Product Description

From the publishers of Architectural Graphic Standards, this book, created under the auspices of The American Planning Association, is the most comprehensive reference book on urban planning, design, and development available today. Contributions from more than two hundred renowned professionals provide rules of thumb and best practices for mitigating such environmental impacts as noise, traffic, aesthetics, preservation of green space and wildlife, water quality, and more. You get in-depth information on the tools and techniques used to achieve planning and design outcomes, including economic analysis, mapping, visualization, legal foundations, and real estate developments. Thousands of illustrations, examples of custom work by todays leading planners, and insider information make this work the new standard in the field. Order your copy today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #582904 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 816 pages

Review
"Steiner and Butler present a student edition of a text on planning and urban design standards, derived from the full edition published in 2006." (Book News, February 2008)

From the Back Cover
The new student edition of the definitive reference on urban planning and design

Planning and Urban Design Standards, Student Edition is the authoritative and reliable volume designed to teach students best practices and guidelines for urban planning and design.

Edited from the main volume to meet the serious student's needs, this Student Edition is packed with more than 1,400 informative illustrations and includes the latest rules of thumb for designing and evaluating any land-use scheme—from street plantings to new subdivisions. Students find real help understanding all the practical information on the physical aspects of planning and urban design they are required to know, including:

• Plans and plan making
• Environmental planning and management
• Building types
• Transportation
• Utilities
• Parks and open space, farming, and forestry
• Places and districts
• Design considerations
• Projections and demand analysis
• Impact assessment
• Mapping
• Legal foundations
• Growth management preservation, conservation, and reuse
• Economic and real estate development

Planning and Urban Design Standards, Student Edition provides essential specification and detailing information for various types of plans, environmental factors and hazards, building types, transportation planning, and mapping and GIS. In addition, expert advice guides readers on practical and graphical skills, such as mapping, plan types, and transportation planning.

About the Author
The American Planning Association (APA) is a Chicago-based non-profit public-interest and research organization representing 30,000 practicing planners, officials and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues.
It conducts extensive research on planning topics including a landmark study on Growing Smart, Site Planning Essentials for Central America and The City Parks Forum. 
It also publishes Planning, a monthly magazine and Zoning News, a monthly newsletter on local land-use controls, and the Journal of the American Planning Association, a quarterly journal, along with other specialized journals and Planning Advisory Service (PAS) reports.

Customer Reviews

Excellent as a broadly scoped reference book
This book is tremendously broad in its coverage of planning topics, though not in depth. Most topics get only 2 pages, though some get 4-5. References are listed for each topic to help you find more detailed information. The book is well organized and indexed. It's loaded with illustrations such as graphs, diagrams, flow charts, line art, photographs, and maps. Most are black and white, but there are 16 color plates that are grouped together and stuck in a seemingly arbitrary position in the middle of an unrelated topic.

Some information is already out of date. For example, on page 580 it says that the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) expired in 2003 and Congress was still debating reauthorization. The new act (SAFETEA-LU) was enacted in August 2005 and is not mentioned.

My only real complaint is that the type is quite small and can be difficult to read for 40+ year-old readers. On the other hand, I understand that if they used larger type this huge, heavy book would be even bigger and heavier.

I also got the electronic, online version of the book and was disappointed in that, again because of the small type. Even using a 20" monitor I had a very hard time reading it. The viewer application that Amazon uses has very limited capability to zoom in on the text so it does not help.

A public sector must-have resource
An excellent resource for anyone involved in public sector land-use planning. Contains great detail on many different subjects. Good illustrations throughout. Not the best resource for site planning, though.

Mandatory
This is a mandatory book in an urban planner or college bookshelf, for it has all the necessary information to complete urban projects. It is my handbook and that says all. It is also very well presented with a hardcover in good leather. The only shortcoming that I see is the absence of folded pages with urban plans in a larger scale, or renderings of zoning plans.