APA Planners PressPlanners Press is APA's book imprint. We publish titles of interest to practitioners, researchers, and the general public, with the aim of stimulating readers, creating an engaged citizenry, and influencing policy development — all by telling the many stories of planning. Featured titles How does the design of a neighborhood affect the people who live there? In this thoughtful, engaging book, Sidney Brower explains how a neighborhood's design lays the groundwork for the social relationships that make it a community. Neighbors & Neighborhoods is an eye-opener for everyone who's wondered what makes their local neighborhoods tick.
 In popular imagination, America is the land of wide open spaces. But in reality, much of it is more densely populated than Europe. Two-thirds of the U.S. population lives on less than 20 percent of the privately owned land, clustered in 20-some megapolitan areas — networks of metropolitan centers fused by common economic, physical, social, and cultural traits. This is required reading for everyone who cares about America's future.
 In her new Planners Press book, Brenda Case Scheer examines why urban environments frequently resist change. She reveals that most built environments repeat a limited number of physical types and that planners and architects refer to building types as they work through urban design problems and regulations. The book includes practical examples of how typology is critical to analytical, design, and regulatory situations.
 Doug Walker and Tom Daniels have produced an authoritative and accessible guide to CommunityViz, GIS-based software that projects the impact of today's plans on tomorrow's communities. Practical examples and case studies show how planners, decision makers, and the public can use this powerful tool to see and shape their future.
With The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs sparked a public conversation about urbanism. Fifty years after her defining work, 11 thought-provoking essays revisit her ideas, critique their consequences, and consider their relevance to today's planning challenges around the globe. Randall Arendt brings his insights to a broader public, with a profusely illustrated demonstration of how local officials, planning commissioners, and everyday citizens can work to make their communities more attractive, more habitable, and more sustainable. Arendt's work has shaped a generation of planners, designers, and landscape architects. This volume is a detailed history and overview of how one low-lying country has developed the policies, tools, technology, planning, public outreach, and international cooperation needed to save their populated deltas. It explores the growth, development, and management of deltaic cities and regions, with the aim of balancing various goals in a sustainable manner. This volume traces the development of New Orleans from precolonial times to post-Katrina realities, in the context of the deltaic plain on which it lies. The book describes the underlying physical terrain and covers the various transformations humans have made to it: site selection, settlement, urbanization, population, expansion, drainage, protection, exploitation, devastation, and recovery. The housing foreclosures that have swept the nation since 2008 have had radical economic effects. This meticulous look at the latest data reveals shocking lessons that the mainstream discussion has overlooked. The authors examined more than 100 successful projects and discovered universal elements that characterize sustainable urban districts. By applying these elements, designers and developers can recreate and extend the experience of successful places to their communities. Based on the National Building Museum's Green Community exhibition, this book is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health. Robert B. Olshansky and Laurie A. Johnson have been working to understand the difficult planning decisions in this unusual situation. As both observers of and participants in the challenging process of creating the Unified New Orleans Plan, they bring unparalleled detail and insight to this complex story. Submissions WelcomedPlanners Press actively welcomes submissions. Please e-mail a brief summary of what you have in mind to plannerspress@planning.org. Include a description of the book itself, its intended audience(s), and your qualifications for writing it. | |
Reconsidering Jane Jacobs
Envisioning Better Communities
Delta Urbanism: The Netherlands
Delta Urbanism: New Orleans
Foreclosing the Dream
Grid / Street / Place
Green Community
Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans
