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ANNOUNCEMENT: An important new book has been published, one that illustrates what our urban landscapes might look like if all of the emerging principles of sustainable design were applied. Although there are a number of books on sustainable design, there are very few, if any, illustrated case studies of complete sustainable communities. This book is comprehensive enough for the classroom, accessible enough for high school students, yet stylish enough for the coffee table. I strongly urge you to consider acquiring this important book for yourself or for your library. More information is available from Alison Arsenault via e-mail at [log in to unmask] SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPES: THE SURREY DESIGN CHARRETTE Patrick M. Condon, Editor ISBN 0-88865-535-5 Published by the UBC James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments. Distributed by University of British Columbia Press Despite emerging regional, provincial, and federal urban development policies that promote and indeed increasingly require our cities to be more sustainable, we are still seeing our urban landscapes being insulted with poor design and overall disregard. One roadblock to building new more sustainable communities is that we have, until now, lacked a concrete "Vision" of exactly what such communities would be like. Sustainable Urban Landscapes: The Surrey Design Charrette records how sustainable communities can move from idea to reality and, along the way, provides useful guidance on how we can build better and more responsibly. In contrast with many books that deal with sustainability and planning theory, this books provides tangible "pictures" of what a more sustainable community might actually be like. This book catalogues the results of a design charrette hosted by the University of British Columbia's Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments in the Fall of 1995. Top landscape and building architects from all over North America, supported by UBC Architecture and Landscape Architecture students, formed themselves into four teams, and, armed with the most innovative and up-to-date sustainable principles, designed a sustainable community for a 400 acre parcel in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. The 5 day brainstorming design exercise produced 4 complete plans and 4 sets of illustrations for a sustainable community of 10,000 persons. The end products are far different from conventional subdivisions currently being built in most cities. Instead, the natural environment retains its integrity, with designs reflecting many sustainable urban landscape design principles - more park space, narrower residential streets to slow traffic, walking-friendly streets, varied housing types, and a working with rather than against the natural systems of the site. The book is laid out so that the reader gets a sense of the evolution of a designers thought process through the progression of illustrations. In each chapter, a team describes the steps in which they chose to tackle the design problem. Illustrated with over 98 colour images, the chapters follow a sequence from the ground up - exposing each teams approach to problem solving. Readers will be drawn into the highly illustrative pages packed with analytical diagrams, perspective sketches, site sections, housing prototype studies, block prototype studies, axonometrics, illustrative site plans, and detailed site plans. The forward is by Doug Kelbaugh, FAIA, charrette team leader, professor at the University of Washington department of Architecture, editor of the influential "Pedestrian Pockets Handbook, organizer of over a dozen of his own international charrettes at the University of Washington, and the official advisor to the UBC charrette project. The introduction is by the editor Patrick Condon, holder of the Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments, Charrette host, and team leader. Bill Morrish, Director of the Design Centre for the American Urban Landscape, an influential thinker in the field of urban design and a charrette team member, provides an essay on ways to integrate urban infrastructure with natural systems. The other team leaders for the charrette were: Joost Bakker, Architect, Vancouver, British Columbia; Cheryl Barton, Landscape Architect, San Francisco, California;Catherine Brown, Landscape Architect, Minneapolis Minnesota; Patrick Condon, Landscape Arc hitect, Vancouver, British Columbia; Roger Hughes, Architect, Vancouver,British Columbia; Ken Greenberg, Architect, Toronto, Ontario; Jennifer Marshall, Architect, Vancouver, British Columbia; Stacy Moriarty, Landscape Architect, Vancouver, British Colum bia; Moura Quayle, Landscape Architect, Vancouver, British Columbia; Murray Silverstein, Architect, Berkeley, California; Ron Walkey, Architect, Vancouver, British Columbia; Bill Wenk, Landscape Architect, Denver, Colorado; Carolyn Woodland, Landscape Arc hitect, Toronto, Ontario; Don Wuori, Landscape Architect, Vancouver, British Columbia. Largely descriptive rather than prescriptive, "Sustainable Urban Landscapes" is the first book to provide readers with innovative concepts for integrating nature with the city and, further, the design details to make it work.