Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature

By Douglas Farr

Published by Wiley, January 08

Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature is both an urgent call to action and a comprehensive introduction to "Sustainable Urbanism"-the growing sustainable design convergence that integrates walkable and diverse places with high-performance infrastructure and buildings.

Providing a historical perspective on the standards and regulations that got us and keep us on the course toward sprawl and unsustainable development, along with earlier attempts at reform, Douglas Farr makes a powerful case for Sustainable Urbanism, showing how architects and urban designers need to shape the built environment for the benefit of both humans and nature. He then explains how to implement Sustainable Urbanism in cities, towns, and neighbor-hoods through coordinated leadership and communication.

Essays written by Farr and others delve into such issues as:

• Increasing sustainability through density
• Integrating transportation and land use in an auto-dependent era
• Creating sustainable neighborhoods with walk-to-work neighborhood centers of locally owned businesses, share cars on every block, and walkable neighborhoods
• The health and environmental benefits of linking humans to nature, including walk-to open spaces, neighborhood stormwater systems and waste treatment, and food production
• High-performance buildings and neighborhood-scale infrastructure including district energy systems

About the author
Douglas Farr, an architect and urban designer, is the founding principal. He currently co-chairs the Environmental Task Force of the Congress for the New Urbanism and is a past chair of the AIA Chicago Committee on the Environment. Farr is working to initiate a new rating system and policy, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development, (LEED-ND) in coordination with the US Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the National Resource Defense Council. This is a targeted effort to create a LEED rating system for developments that incorporate green and sustainable elements in their site selection.

Farr Associates is a Chicago-based firm focused on sustainable design in architecture and urban design. Founded in 1990, Farr Associates was the first architecture firm in the world to have designed at least two building to be certified with a LEED Platinum rating: The Chicago Center for Green Technology and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, also in Chicago. The firm designed its own office in the historic Monadnock Building as a LEED for Commercial Interiors pilot project.

For a review copy please contact Alicia Barker: Media Request