Professional Real Estate Development 2nd Edition

Product Description

Thoroughly updated, the second edition of Professional Real Estate Development explains the nuts and bolts of the real estate development industry. You will learn how to develop and manage five types of real estate products: land, residential, office, industrial, and retail uses. Focusing on small-scale projects, the authors show you practical methods for developing each major type of real estate, including feasibility analysis, design and construction, financing, marketing, and management. Photos, site plans, diagrams, and case studies provide examples of actual projects and how the process works. Information is specific and detailed, with costs, rents, and financing information included by product type.

Customer Reviews:

Academic. A text book that needs a refresher for today's issues........2006-04-24

Rick is first and foremost a professor, so the book follows an academic format best suited for the young student of development seeking a broad introduction to the process. Of course, the real world is more complex than any text book could ever capture. That said, the book has become a bit dated for the contemporary developer, whose world is increasingly governed by investors, special interest groups and oft ill-informed government officials! The book delivers fundamental building blocks in a logical, sequential process. The examples cited are, as another reviewer pointed out, on average probably 14 year old analogies. Perhaps the largest ommission is an accurate portrayal of what a developer really does - assembles a diverse team of people together to share in a singular vision, then rule over this creative, temperamental team with an iron fist in velvet gloves. A chapter called 'Cat Herding' would best summarize that world.

My recommendation is, buy the book, join the Urban Land Institute, attend your meetings, be a good listener, and dont think reading one book will set you off on your path to that infamous (maybe fictitious unless you happen to be the primary investor in an opportunity fund!)in that $100,000,000 net profit deal!

Excellent starter book.......2005-10-02

Excellent starter book. Should be required reading for every real estate professional. Wished I'd had about 5 years ago.

ULI Guide.......2004-01-28

For its high price, you may want to seriously think about your needs. If your intention is to buy a book for a broad overview of the development process with a somewhat academic approach, then this may be right for you. If you are builder or someone with prior real estate brokerage/service experience, you may find this too ivory tower and not practical. This book was a bit theoretical for my taste.

Although this book has been reprinted recently, all the data dates back to the late-1990's. Social and economic data are perhaps presented for illustrative purposes only, however, it is a bit disheartening.

There are some interesting project data, financial models and checklists, but frankly, the reader could figure those out on his/her own with some common sense and marginal experience in the industry.

Bottom line -- my suggestion is to review the book at the public library before you buy.

An Excellent Overview Of The Development Process.......2003-04-23

I am a 66 year old developer with several successful projects under my belt. This is a fine book for beginning, intermediate, and yes, advanced developers. The best I've ever read, and I've got bookshelves full of them. Also, for a modest fee, you can download from the publisher the software used for the financial illustrations in the book. I had to learn this material the hard way, because when I started out, there weren't any good books on development. If you want to be a developer, start here. If you're an experienced developer, you'll learn a lot from this book. I congratulate the authors for putting in such an immense amount of work.

Land Development Calculations: Interactive Tools and Techniques for Site Planning, Analysis and Design

Average customer rating:

Not much on Retail... and pricey for what you get.
Extremely valuable tool
Author Delivers Valuable Techniques and Tools

Land Development Calculations: Interactive Tools and Techniques for Site Planning, Analysis and Design
Walter Martin Hosack
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 007136255X

Book Description

"It is the kind of simplified tool that many of us in practice sorely need" - Jamie Greene, AICP, AIA, Principal, American Communities Partnership

*The first computational tool for land development and site planning analysis and design
*Real-world case studies, with photographs and plans, illustrate how alternative development options would affect the project results
*Includes a CD-ROM containing 30 interactive spreadsheets that can be used for every type of land development scenario

Customer Reviews:

Not much on Retail... and pricey for what you get........2007-05-14

A bit dissapointed that there was very little targeted toward Retail, specifically lacking in the areas of shopping center and out parcel development... but the formulas were interesting, and the concepts that were explained... were done so in great detail.

Extremely valuable tool.......2002-10-07

"Land Development Calculations" provides an excellent and innovative strategy for working towards sustainable land use and development. The models for varying land development strategies can assist local government land use decision makers and planners as well as developers determine the carrying capacity of land within realistic thresholds. The accompanying spreadsheets for the development scenarios on the CD-ROM are extremely user friendly and do not place an undue burden on the user by requiring what may be hard to find or to collect data. All of the data required just is typical of what is necessary to make appropriate land development decisions. As a local government planner, I am working towards incorporating the information received from the models in to the zoning and development code as part of the approval process by using it to further assess suitability of the property for the purposes proposed (a zoning consideration required in accordance with the State of Georgia Zoning Procedures Act). I strongly encourage other land planners and developers to read "Land Development Calculations," because of its highly practical and very timely material.

Author Delivers Valuable Techniques and Tools.......2001-10-18

This is a terrificaly valuable technical reference for practitioners who need an efficient method of performing land development calulations. The book and its companion set of spreadsheets enable users to answer two key questions: 1) how much can be built on a given piece of land; or 2) how much land is needed to accommodate a given use? The material is clearly written and well illustrated, especially a series of worksheets leading through the method. Another strength is its comprehensiveness and detail, including all major land-use and micro site conditions.

Multifamily Housing Development Handbook (Uli Development Handbook Series)

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Multifamily Housing Development Handbook (Uli Development Handbook Series)
Adrienne Schmitz
Manufacturer: Urban Land Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0874208696

Book Description

Highly regarded for comprehensiveness and quality, ULI's handbooks have provided real estate professionals with practical advice and authoritative information on the development process for decades.

The Multifamily Housing Development Handbook covers best practices and proven techniques for a wide range of project types and settings. Each aspect of the development process is explained in detail, from market analysis and financing to product design and operations.

Rich with color photos, examples, and case studies, the book describes the real-life experiences and strategies of seasoned developers, planners, and architects.

Highlights

Covers a wide variety of multifamily housing types and locations including garden, townhouse and high-rise project types, affordable and high-end price ranges, new, rehab, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse properties, urban and suburban locations, niche products such as student, military, and seniors housing

Includes practical, how-to information on the multifamily housing development process such as market analysis, site selection, feasibility, financing, planning, design, regulations, marketing, operations, and management.

Book Description

One of the hottest trends in real estate is the development of town centers and urban villages that include a mix of uses in a pedestrian friendly setting. This new book will help you navigate the unique development issues and options and show you how to make all of the elements work together. You will learn about the economic and social forces driving this trend; how these projects are being developed in master planned communities, infill, and redevelopment areas; special regulatory, market and finance issues; and how suburban planners and developers are pursuing town center concepts to create attractive gathering places for their communities. Illustrat-ed in full color, the book includes case studies and examples that describe how leading professionals met the challenges and developed innovative and successful projects.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for Urban Planning!.......2007-01-10

I was put on to this book by a professor at USF School of Architecture. It contains not only the history of placemaking but real examples of placemaking and tools in how to achieve the notion of "place." Not only is this a great resource, but it is easy to read and follow along.

Highly reccomended!

Power and ample information and graphics.......2006-08-24

I found this book to be one of the best out on the topic, of which there are too few at present for such an important topic. The depth and breadth of place-making topics and their coverage makes this a very excellent easy-to-read-and-understand as well as a long-term reference tool. The graphics are very well done. Having recently attended a Harvard program on retail for cities and new towns and urban center given by Bob Gibbs and Terry Shook, I especially found the book right on target. I want to see more of these types of books.

Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide To Creating Open Space Networks

Average customer rating:

Look closer: Are these model plans REALLY sprawl alternatives?
More people need to read this book!
Should be a guide for the future of subdivisions!
excellent reference guide that will help combat urban sprawl
this book is a blueprint for land development of the future.

Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide To Creating Open Space Networks
Randall G. Arendt
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559634898

Book Description

In most communities, land use regulations are based on a limited model that allows for only one end result: the production of more and more suburbia, composed of endless subdivisions and shopping centers, that ultimately covers every bit of countryside with "improvements." Fortunately, sensible alternatives to this approach do exist, and methods of developing land while at the same time conserving natural areas are available.

In Conservation Design for Subdivisions, Randall G. Arendt explores better ways of designing new residential developments than we have typically seen in our communities. He presents a practical handbook for residential developers, site designers, local officials, and landowners that explains how to implement new ideas about land-use planning and environmental protection. Abundantly illustrated with site plans (many of them in color), floor plans, photographs, and renditions of houses and landscapes, it describes a series of simple and straightforward techniques that allows for land-conserving development.

The author proposes a step-by-step approach to conserving natural areas by rearranging density on each development parcel as it is being planned so that only half (or less) of the buildable land is turned into houselots and streets. Homes are built in a less land-consumptive manner that allows the balance of property to be permanently protected and added to an interconnected network of green spaces and green corridors. Included in the volume are model zoning and subdivision ordinance provisions that can help citizens and local officials implement these innovative design ideas.

Customer Reviews:

Look closer: Are these model plans REALLY sprawl alternatives?.......2005-11-09

Check out some of the final subdivision design parameters on page 87. While other reviewers might benefit from the author's justified concern for conserving open space--especially in communities where cookie-cutter style developers 'rule the Board', the end result for some of the plans in this work APPEARS to be large-lot American sprawl, with ecological considerations that don't go far enough. Perhaps Arendt's GROWING GREENER, which I've not seen, will get us closer(?)

More people need to read this book!.......2002-02-08

What a concept! Rather than trying to get the most acreage per lot, make smaller lots with more shared open space. A must read for every developer, planning board, and zoning commition. Easy to follow examples show how to preserve historic and environmental features while adding to the value of the land that is developed.

Should be a guide for the future of subdivisions!.......1999-07-03

If we developed land in the manner the author teaches, America would look so much nicer! A very common sense approach to maintain rural character in an area and stop sprawl from destroying your area. Every developer, planner, new home buyer, builder, conservationist and private citizen should read this and also buy the author's book, "Rural By Design".

excellent reference guide that will help combat urban sprawl.......1999-02-27

Cheers for Randall G. Arendt, et al. For years my government agency has been fighting a loosing battle in Florida with unmanaged and unfettered urban growth. It seemed as though nothing could stem the tide of urban sprawl until two things happened. One was an election of a more centralist government and the other was the introduction of "designing for conservation" into our policy making levels. This concept was brought into clear focus by Arendt's book. The authors not only presented a practical and economically sound guide for growth that can benefit developers, but the reference can act as a mechanism to help preserve the environmental cohesiveness of any community. The policy makers in our community were so impressed with this book that fifteen (15) copies were purchased to be placed into the hands of influential politicians, developers and regulatory agencies.

this book is a blueprint for land development of the future........1999-02-08

As a land developer this book brought into focus the problems that haave been growing as more and more of the land in my area has been consumed, and we have less and less to develop. At first I thought it would be another environmental tirade against land development,but instead realised it was a very practical and economically sound guide for development that would benefit me and also help maintain the character of my community. Arendt's concern is for the environment and the preservation of open spaces and connective corridors of space and natural habitat between differing parcels of land in a given area. His solutions achieve these goals, but of special interest to me as a developer is that his solutions also mean no loss of density, reduced costs and higher land values. Excellent illustrations, easy to understand and worth the price many times over.

This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America

Average customer rating:

Flint wants citizens & planners to plan for 60-72 million immigrants. Flint says you're an extremist/radical if you oppose
Flint provides a lucid account of the complex battle over sprawl in America
Very balanced and insightful
America the Beautiful
A wide-ranging survey of defenders and contenders of sprawl

This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America
Anthony Flint
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801884195

Book Description

Despite a modest revival in city living, Americans are spreading out more than ever -- into "exurbs" and "boomburbs" miles from anywhere, in big houses in big subdivisions. We cling to the notion of safer neighborhoods and better schools, but what we get, argues Anthony Flint, is long commutes, crushing gas prices and higher taxes -- and a landscape of strip malls and office parks badly in need of a makeover.

This Land tells the untold story of development in America -- how the landscape is shaped by a furious clash of political, economic and cultural forces. It is the story of burgeoning anti-sprawl movement, a 1960s-style revolution of New Urbanism, smart growth, and green building. And it is the story of landowners fighting back on the basis of property rights, with free-market libertarians, homebuilders, road pavers, financial institutions, and even the lawn-care industry right alongside them.

The subdivisions and extra-wide roadways are encroaching into the wetlands of Florida, ranchlands in Texas, and the desert outside Phoenix and Las Vegas. But with up to 120 million more people in the country by 2050, will the spread-out pattern cave in on itself? Could Americans embrace a new approach to development if it made sense for them?

A veteran journalist who covered planning, development, and housing for the Boston Globe for sixteen years and a visiting scholar in 2005 at the Harvard Design School, Flint reveals some surprising truths about the future and how we live in This Land.

Customer Reviews:

Flint wants citizens & planners to plan for 60-72 million immigrants. Flint says you're an extremist/radical if you oppose.......2007-01-25

I'm against sprawl. But I and the majority of U.S. citizens can't and should NOT accept Flint's outrageous portrayal (see pp 125-6) of those citizens who have examined and are deeply concerned with U.S. population projections for the next 50 years--120 million more, with a staggering 60% of those immigrant--as on the 'radical fringe' and as 'tree-huggers who agree with Pat Buchanan and Michael Savage.' This is idiotic McCarthy-like baiting at its finest. And dullest.
Flint appears to be clueless as to what democratic planning consists of. Perhaps he needs to research what U.S. citizens think 'building smart' for 72 million immigrants truly means. There SHOULD be a democratic debate about immigration and planning, and the sooner more Americans--and planners-- enter it, the better. But not for this author. Flint's biographical essay contains not a single reference to the impacts of illegal immigration (an estimated 12 million people)on municipal, regional and environmental planning practice. Is this acceptable to the majority of Americans? To planners? Instead we find Flint capitulating with this ridiculous reminder on how to 'deal' with the incoming masses (p 248):
"Remember those 100 million new people expected in the country by 2050? They're the reason we're going to need more compact places."

Just like that.

My other critique of this book (released in 2006) is the absence of ANY real discussion of the impacts of global warming on urban and regional development, planned or unplanned, smart or stupid. Flint covers planning issues for homeland security instead. But with popular coverage of planetary warming now a daily norm on the TV and in the media, you'd think writers steeped in planning issues would make the connection. Flint misses the boat in a rising sea...again. A LSU geoscience professor informs us on national news last night that coastal regions will be facing some serious threats in 40 years from melting ice caps. This book mentions nothing on the challenges of global warming for the planning profession, or for readers who happen to occupy the populated coastal areas of the country who'll see their populations soar from both legal and illegal population growth. Not to mention planning impacts of drought, flooding, urban heat islands, energy supplies for cities gong through hyper-growth, etc. Without population and global warming considerations (addressed in POPULATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE (2005) by O'Neill, and also see "Human Mobility in a Globalizing World: Urban Development Trends and Policy Implications" by Wm Clark and available online at the CA Center for Population Research), how smart can Flint's brand of American 'smart growth' really be?

I have grave doubts that the biologist E. O. Wilson, who has watched the planet get chewed to hell in his lifetime, would've given this book such high praises had he actually READ the book.

Addendum:
For a thoughtless and perhaps unethical critique of my book review by a Boston planner (academic?), click on 'Comments (2)' below. In summary and with my embellishments, this Flint supporter appears to be implying

1) The illegal immigration issue has nothing significant to do with land use planning (again: 60-72 million plus according to Flint added to the US population, and certainly the greater proportion arriving in violation of Federal immigration law). Focus uncritically on planning for the millions who are here legally and can afford to own planned developments. Aging baby boomers will need "young" people (who cares about their status) to do the menial work and pay into SS. The non-unionized undocumented will help build and maintain the compact habitats only aging boomers can afford. Like the sprawl they are constructing right now. How else will we keep some of our lawless and immoral regional economies humming w/out lots of young, undocumented, eager, and poverty stricken individuals? Who cares if this intensifies America's two-tier society?

2) You're xenophobic if you call attention to this demographic and planning challenge for the projected 60-72 million immigrants (note: her finger-pointing mirrors perfectly Flint's accusations of 'radicalism' mentioned in my book review. If you're not for unlimited population increase you're 'on the fringe'). Planners should not be concerned with what the majority of American citizens have to say about future land use in their own country.

3)Any voiced concerns with current failures of urban and regional planners to address the planning impacts of 12 million undocumented (in less than 12 years) or consider future planning demands for 60-72 million individuals are irrelevant; it's not what land use planners do. Remember: you're a xenophobe like millions of other Americans for even thinking that. Planners don't think this way. Just focus and push for legislation and regs that result in 'smart growth'.

4) Global warming is for env. science books, not land use planners who already know that stuff. Drought, urban runoff, regional flooding, building for a warmer climate, urban heat islands, energy and watershed water supplies for cities and regions, and the rise of sea level in urbanized coastal regions have NOTHING to do with American land use.

5) Flint's de facto and uncritical support for 60-72 million more individuals of unknown status entering this country in the next 50 years is not the point of the book. Good planning is simply a social challenge. We need enlightened planning laws. So to hell with immigration laws.

6)Repeat daily the 'smart growth' mantra.

Flint provides a lucid account of the complex battle over sprawl in America.......2006-09-09

'This Land' by Anthony Flint is written by a journalist in a journalistic style. The core of this book is devoted to the battle of ideologies over land use in America: the smart growth movement advocating for control on suburban growth, the new urbanists insisting on the need to rethink our zoning laws currently favoring inefficient sprawl, and property right advocates and lobbyists fighting to gain full control over what can be developed on their property. This story spanning over essentially half a century is told using a myriad of anecdotes and examples from all across America. One such story relates how land owners request compensations for lost revenues (equated to governmental takings) resulting from the restrictions on development outside urban growth boundaries. Flint remains critical and objective, avoiding an overt endorsement of anyone in particular. Many of the themes discussed in books such as `Suburban Nation' or `The Geography of Nowhere' are covered, but with a journalistic tone and restraint.

Beyond merely covering the familiar arguments, he suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that smart growth is itself a `conservative idea'. Our current growth practices are not truly a reflection of the free market; they are highly subsidized by way of highway investments and the costly expansion of public services by local governments (e.g. roads, sewers, schools, fire and police departments). Instead of building on brown sites and urban infills, cities expand on greenfields further and further away stretching tax dollars up to a point of imminent bankruptcy.

This book's strength is in providing a non-partisan account of the political and economical battles over land use in America. Its weakness may be an overabundance of short anecdotal stories found in the middle part of the book. Some suggestions are made in the very last chapter as to what can be done to improve our public space and reduce the wastefulness of our current growth practices. Those seeking a severe and incisive criticism of modern urbanism may be better served by reading `Suburban Nation'. However, this book presents the multitude of conflicting positions that other authors are essentially arguing for or against.

Very balanced and insightful.......2006-09-07

I find Anthony Flint very balanced and insightful in this book. I like the fact that this book's author, in addition to explaining how and why sprawl came about in the first place, the drawbacks of sprawl, and the solutions to it, also explains the reasons why there is so much resistance to the alternatives to sprawl, and the solutions to that resistance.

America the Beautiful.......2006-08-22

Anthony Flint does a great job of enlightening us about the history of sprawl in America and how we got to where we are today. It sure surprised me. He also offers solutions to the problems of sprawl, so the book provides hope. This Land is well written and easy to understand.

A wide-ranging survey of defenders and contenders of sprawl.......2006-08-20

THIS LAND: THE BATTLE OVER SPRAWL AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA charts the evolution of development in America: a process which holds political, social and economic clashes and influences throughout the process. From the roots of the anti-sprawl movement in the 1960s to issues of property and personal rights, developer rights, finances and more, THIS LAND comes from a journalist who covered planning and housing for the Boston Globe for sixteen years. His background lends to a wide-ranging survey of defenders and contenders of sprawl.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, New Edition

Average customer rating:

city of quartz , new edition
Should be shelved in Poli-Sci or Opinion but not History
a great piece of history
Radical history of Los Angeles

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, New Edition
Mike Davis
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844675688

Book Description

A fully updated edition of Mike Davis's visionary work.

No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together." To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it." To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias. In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs LA's shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West—a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.

In this new edition, Davis provides a dazzling update on the city's current status.

Customer Reviews:

city of quartz , new edition.......2007-09-19

City of Quartz, the original version, is an excellent book on the history of Los Angeles until 1989, well readable, informative and incisive, a must-read even if some people take offense at views which are neither mainstream nor conservative.
When you finish the book you are very curious as to how that author would write about the years since 1989.
That book still needs to be written.
But in an extensive foreword to this new edition many aspects of the most recent history of the most fascinating metropolis on the planet are touched, the Watts riots and whatnot; obviously there is much more and whoever follows what Davis writes in journals about Katrina-torn New Orleans and other hot topics, google his books !, can't wait until a new, extensively updated "City of Quartz" will be out.

Should be shelved in Poli-Sci or Opinion but not History.......2007-05-22

I got this book thinking it was about the social history and architecture of Los Angeles.

Although City Of Quartz does touch upon various events in LA history, it does so only to use those events as a springboard for the author's political writings. Reading it, I got the impression that ANY American city would have brought forth the same opinions.

To sum up: "Wealthy people, Corporations, the Police, and Conservatives are BAD GUYS and are ALWAYS in the wrong. Poor people, Unions, Criminals and Liberals are GOOD GUYS and are ALWAYS in the right. And don't you people realize that the cost of one stealth bomber could pay for 10000 public housing units!?"

The author is certainly entitled to his opinions, but with such a cut-and-dried world view the book quickly becomes boringly predictable. Page after page of "The rich are oppressing the poor, the Whites are oppressing Minorities, the Police are oppressing criminals..." stated as facts - no need for debate - no discussion as to WHY the author feels this way - just a long laundry list of political grievences, and in the end - very little about L.A. history.

If you're interested in Mr. Davis's opinions, this book might be worth a read. But if you're looking for a history book about Los Angeles, look elsewhere.

a great piece of history.......2007-03-26

I knew very little about L.A. This book is actually a history book. I just loved it and it answered many questions I had.

Radical history of Los Angeles.......2007-02-26

Davis is well-known in radical circles as a popular writer on various issues relating to labor movements and the like. This is essentially a history of the city of Los Angeles and its surroundings from a radical perspective. It's quite well-done and very informative (at least to an ignoramus like me), but Davis goes overboard now and then in seeing a conspiracy to repress the poor behind everything. He also has the tendency to call historical incidences of repression a "holocaust" (he actually uses this word multiple times for different things), which I don't like being used in this manner. Aside from that though, it's a welcome different approach from the usual hagiographic or hip postmodern analyses of conglomeration cities like LA. There's not much more I can say about it, as whether you like his left-wing critical vignettes or not will be mostly a matter of taste - judge it for yourself.

Average customer rating:

Good Quality Overview of Condominium Development

Developing Condominiums
Alexa Bach
Manufacturer: Urban Land Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0874209633

Customer Reviews:

Good Quality Overview of Condominium Development.......2007-05-13

"Developing Condominiums" provides an excellent top level overview as well as detailed case studies of the conceptual and practical elements of condominium development. The book highlights a wide range of developments from new construction to conversions and covers the entire development cycle. Current issues such as LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and a post Katrina case study are also discussed.

Highly recommended for both seasoned and novice developers.

Growing Greener: Putting Conservation Into Local Plans And Ordinances

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Growing Greener: Putting Conservation Into Local Plans And Ordinances
Randall G. Arendt
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559637420

Book Description

Growing Greener is an illustrated workbook that presents a new look at designing subdivisions while preserving green space and creating open space networks. Randall Arendt explains how to design residential developments that maximize land conservation without reducing overall building density, thus avoiding the political and legal problems often associated with "down-zoning."

The author offers a three-pronged strategy for shaping growth around a community's special natural and cultural features, demonstrating ways of establishing or modifying the municipal comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and subdivision ordinance to include a strong conservation focus. Open space protection becomes the central organizing principle for new residential development, and the open space that is protected is laid out to form an interconnected system of protected lands running across a community.

The book offers:

detailed information on how to conduct a community resource inventory
a four-step approach to designing conservation subdivisions
extensive model language for comprehensive plans, subdivision ordinances, and zoning ordinances
illustrated design principles for hamlets, villages, and traditional small town neighborhoods

In addition, Growing Greener includes eleven case studies of actual conservation developments in nine states, and two exercises suitable for group participation. Case studies include: Ringfield, Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania; The Fields of St. Croix, City of Lake Elmo, Minnesota; Prairie Crossing, Grayslake, Illinois; The Meadows at Dolly Gordon Brook, York, Maine; Farmcolony, Standsville, Virginia; The Ranch at Roaring Fork, Carbondale, Colorado; and others.

Amazon.com

For those who believe the success of cities stands at the bedrock of the health of the country or at least those interested in the historical, political and financial aspects of that argument, Here's the Deal is necessary reading. Ross Miller, a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Connecticut and nephew of playwright Arthur Miller, traces the politics of city revitalization in Chicago from the 1950s to the 1990s. Any book about Chicago politics is, by definition, rife with power making and brokering, and this work is no exception, focusing on the story of a gutted block in the city and the deals between politicians and developers to resuscitate it.

Book Description

With 44 photographs and 30 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Good book, could have used an editor.......2000-05-27

Further proof of the value of editors. There's a good book here and I could find it just by rearranging paragraphs. Interesting stuff, but completely disorganized. Why would the historical background be in the penultimate chapter?

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