June Williamson

A brand-new collection of 32 case studies that further demonstrate the retrofitting of suburbia This amply-illustrated book, second in a series, documents how defunct shopping malls, parking lots, and the past century’s other obsolete suburban development patterns are being retrofitted to address current urgent challenges they weren’t designed for: improving public health, increasing resilience in the face of climate change, leveraging social capital for equity, supporting an aging society, competing for jobs, and disrupting automobile dependence. Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges provides summaries, data, and references on how these challenges manifest in suburbia and discussion of successful urban design strategies to address them in Part I. Part II documents how innovative design strategies are implemented in a range of northern American contexts and market conditions. From modest interventions with big ripple effects to ambitious do-overs, examples of redevelopment, reinhabitation, and regreening of changing suburban places from coast to coast are described in depth in 32 brand new case studies. Written by the authors of the highly influential Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning SuburbsDemonstrates changes that can and already have been realized in suburbia by focusing on case studies of retrofitted suburban placesIllustrated in full-color with photos, maps, plans, and diagrams Full of replicable lessons and creative responses to ongoing problems and potentials with conventional suburban form, Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges is an important book for students and professionals involved in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, development, civil engineering, public health, public policy, and governance. Most of all, it is intended as a useful guide for anyone who seeks to inspire revitalization, justice, and shared prosperity in places they know and care about.

Demonstrates how suburbia is transforming due to the retrofitting movementArchitects and developers are proving that the retrofitting drive is making a big difference in how we improve our world. Focusing on the essential challenges for redevelopment in the 21st century, this fully-illustrated, colorful book showcases exemplary built case studies from around the globe and highlights the solutions that have been realized.Filled with examples of successful suburban projects that have been redeveloped, re-inhabited, and regreened for the betterment of the community and the environment, The Retrofitting Suburbia Case Studies: Designs for 21st-Century Challenges starts by introducing readers to the subject. It then continues with enlightening chapter coverage of case studies involving: Redesigning Water; Innovating Energy Planning; Reducing Auto-Dependency; Improving Public Health; Retrofitting for an Aging Population; Ramping Affordability; Creating and Competing for Jobs; International Challenges; Financing Change; and Design Inspiration.By the authors of the highly acclaimed Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design: Solutions for Redesigning SuburbsDemonstrates what can and already has been realized in suburbia by focusing on case studies of retrofitted suburban developmentsFeatures case studies from North American and around the worldIllustrated in full-color with photos, maps, plans, and diagramsThe Retrofitting Suburbia Case Studies: Designs for 21st-Century Challenges is an important book for students and professionals involved in urban design, architecture, urban planning, and development.

Suburbs deserve a better, more resilient future. June Williamson shows that suburbs aren't destined to remain filled with strip malls and excess parking lots; they can be reinvigorated through inventive design. Drawing on award-winning design ideas for revitalizing Long Island, she offers valuable models not only for U.S. suburbs, but those emerging elsewhere with global urbanisation. Williamson argues that suburbia has historically been a site of great experimentation and is currently primed for exciting changes. Today, dead malls, aging office parks, and blighted apartment complexes are being retrofitted into walkable, sustainable communities. Williamson shows how to expand this trend, highlighting promising design strategies and tactics. She provides a broad vision of suburban reform based on the best schemes submitted in Long Island's highly successful "Build a Better Burb" competition. Many of the design ideas and plans operate at a regional scale, tackling systems such as transit, aquifer protection, and power generation. While some seek to fundamentally transform development patterns, others work with existing infrastructure to create mixed-use, shared networks. "Designing Suburban Futures" offers concrete but visionary strategies to take the sprawl out of suburbia, creating a vibrant, new suburban form.

Updated with a new Introduction by the authors and a foreword by Richard Florida, this book is a comprehensive guide book for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and more sustainable places. While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions. Retrofitting Suburbia was named winner in the Architecture & Urban Planning category of the 2009 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards) awarded by The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers