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  • America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention?

    America's New Downtowns by Ford, Larry R.;

    Revitalization or Reinvention?

    Series: Creating the North American Landscape;

      • GET 8% OFF

      • The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.
      • Publisher's listprice GBP 48.00
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        24 292 Ft (23 136 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 8% (cc. 1 943 Ft off)
      • Discounted price 22 349 Ft (21 285 Ft + 5% VAT)

    24 292 Ft

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    Availability

    Estimated delivery time: In stock at the publisher, but not at Prospero's office. Delivery time approx. 3-5 weeks.
    Not in stock at Prospero.

    Why don't you give exact delivery time?

    Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.

    Product details:

    • Edition number New
    • Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
    • Date of Publication 1 July 2003

    • ISBN 9780801871634
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages360 pages
    • Size 228x152x25 mm
    • Weight 613 g
    • Language English
    • Illustrations 97 Halftones, black & white; 21 Line drawings, black & white
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    Short description:

    Featured cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis

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    Long description:

    What makes a good downtown, and why? Are today's downtowns, with their waterfront parks, festival markets, sports arenas, and cultural centers, more vibrant and lively than the "central business districts" of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Was there ever a "golden age" of downtowns? In this book, noted urban scholar Larry Ford casts a critical and practiced eye on sixteen contemporary urban centers to offer an expert's view of the best?and worst?of downtown America.

    Ford begins with a brief history of U.S. urban development. He then explains his criteria for evaluating downtowns before proceeding with an on-the-street examination of the featured sixteen cities. Each is rated based on use of physical site, particularly for housing (unlike suburbs, Ford notes, most downtowns are located in challenging physical locales, such as harbors, rivers, hills, or peninsulas), street morphology, civic space, functional aspects (office space, retail stores, and convention centers), and the support districts in the fringe areas surrounding the downtown core. Ford concludes with a suggested model of downtown structure based upon the case studies and with a look at the possible effects of increasing globalization on the downtowns of the late twenty-first century. This book will appeal to those interested in urban studies, landscape studies, American studies, architecture, historic preservation and planning, and urban geography.

    Featured cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis



    How rare and refreshing it is to come across a book that abruptly transforms our vision of the world, or at least a significant segment thereof. Just such a splendid rarity is Larry Ford's America's New Downtowns. After declaring that 'Our old models and generalizations are out of date' and that his goal is to get people thinking about what makes a good downtown and why,' our author offers a provocative new model and a wealth of empirical evidence and insights that could keep us thinking about and observing the core neighborhoods of our cities, and perhaps even their betterment, for some time to come . . . This is a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary American life. File it under 'Required Reading.'.
    ?Wilbur Zelinsky, Professional Geographer

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    Table of Contents:

    Preface
    Introduction
    The Downtown Imperative and the Need for Comparative Studies
    Chapter 1. The American Downtown: The Myth of a Golden Age
    Chapter 2. The Evolution of the American Downtown, 1850?2000
    Chapter 3. The Downtown Stage: Physical Site, Street Morphology, and Civic Space
    Chapter 4. Traditional Downtown Functions: Offices, Retailing, Hotels, and Convention Centers
    Chapter 5. Downtown Expands: Major Attractions, Historic Districts, Residential Neighborhoods, and Transportation Innovations
    Chapter 6. Ranking Downtowns: Toward a Model of Spacial Organization
    Notes
    Bibliography
    Index

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