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The complete guide to site analysis for better plans and better projects.
Context-sensitive site planning leads to better development proposals and, ultimately to higher quality built environments. By responding to inherent site opportunities and constraints, context-sensitive development - and redevelopment - creates attractive and pedestrian-friendly places to live, work, and play.
The expanded and extensively revised new edition, Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Land Planning and Site Design, retains the earlier edition’s emphasis on site-planning process. With several project case studies from leading design firms and more than 180 illustrations, the Second Edition reflects the state of the art in sustainable land planning and site design. Some of the topics covered include:
- Site selection and programming
- Conceptual design
- Mapping of physical, biological, and cultural attributes
- Design development
- Feasibility studies
- Site suitability analysis
- Site plan review
Whether you are a student, a practitioner studying for a licensing exam, or a member of a local board or commission that reviews land development proposals, Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Land Planning and Site Design will help you better understand the linkages between existing site and contextual conditions – and the sustainable design of the built environment.
Site analysis is the key to a well-designed project. In fact, the careful and complete analysis of a site and its surrounding context can lead to better development proposals, smoother design implementation, and, ultimately, higher quality built environments.
Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Land Planning and Site Design, 2nd Edition, is the first book to detail each crucial step in the site analysis and planning process, from site selection through design development. It shows how these activities are integrated to arrive at a site plan that successfully balances the needs of the client and other stakeholders with the site's suitability for the intended land uses. With more than 130 illustrations, this book includes many outstanding examples of maps and site plans created by leading land planning firms. It offers guidance on:
- Site identification, evaluation, and selection.
- Site inventories of physical, biological, and cultural attributes.
- Land use suitability analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
- Concept planning and design development.
- Graphic communication with clients, government agencies, and other stakeholders.
Filled with need-to-know information on the entire land planning and design process, Site Analysis is a vital addition to the library of students and professionals in landscape architecture, urban design and planning, and related areas.
This book offers a comprehensive introduction to all stages of the site analysis process. The Second Edition of Site Analysis details each phase of the land planning and site design process, explains the influence of site and contextual conditions on land use development and conservation decisions. It also provides a valuable resource for professionals seeking design solutions for successful land use.
Features:
- Offers a contextual approach to land planning and site design by blending theory and methods from the fields of landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, and urban design.
- Breaks down the entire design process, from preliminary studies to implementation, in a way that is easy for readers to follow.
- Offers practical links between site conditions and appropriate design solutions.
- New information on implementation issues, public policy, and ecologically sustainable development adds realities to the design process.
- Improved graphics and over 150 figures illustrate the way information is communicated in site inventory and site analysis.
- The use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-aided design and drawing (CADD) for mapping and analysis is covered throughout the text.
From the Preface
Context
A context-sensitive approach to sustainable planning and development helps to protect public health, safety, and welfare. By avoiding inherent site problems, or constraints, and by capitalizing on inherent site assets or opportunities site planners can limit long-term maintenance costs and, more important, reduce the risks to life and property from natural hazards The careful analysis of sites - and the site's context - can lead to better development proposals and ultimately to higher-quality built environments.
Qualified site planners and designers are vital to this process. Proposals for carefully sited projects may receive faster approvals and permitting, improved marketability, and rent and sales premiums (Bookout, 1994). The emphasis of the second edition, like the first, is on the site planning process and the organization, analysis, and communication of information throughout this process. This second edition keeps the same structure and format as the first but delves into greater depth within each phase of the site planning process.
What's New
New content has been added to every chapter of this second edition. Substantial revisions were made to Chapter 1 (Shaping the Built Environment), Chapter 2 (Visualization of Spatial Information), Chapter 3 (Site Selection), Chapter 6 (Site Inventory: Biological Attributes), Chapter 7 (Site Inventory: Cultural Attributes), Chapter 8 (Site Analysis: Integration and Synthesis), Chapter 9 (Conceptual Design), Chapter 10 (Design Development), and Chapter 11 (Project Implementation). Chapter 10 from the first edition was divided and expanded to create Chapters 10 and 11 in the second edition. This revised edition explores in more detail the linkages between site conditions and ecologically sustainable development - and redevelopment - of the built environment. More attention is also given to finer-scale site and building design issues and to the development regulations and design review processes that influence the shaping of the built environment. More attention is also given to finer-scal site and building design issues and to the development regulations and design review processes that influence the shaping of the built environment.
Organization of the Book
This book is divided into four parts. Part I, Process and Tools, contains Chapter 1 (Shaping the Built Environment) and Chapter 2 (Visualization of Spatial Information). The first chapter summarizes the site planning and design process and places site planning and design in the broader context of sustainable planning and development. The second chapter addresses the basic principles of mapping and graphic communication in site planning and design.
Part II, Site Selection and Programming, also has two chapters. Chapter 3 (Site Selection) examines the goals and methods of site suitability analysis leading to the comparison and selection of sites. Chapter 4 (Programming) focuses on programming methods, such as user surveys, focus groups, and market analyses.
Part III, Site Inventory and Analysis, is the core of the book. Chapter 5 (Site Inventory: Physical Attributes) and Chapter 6 (Site Inventory: Biological Attributes) cover a wide array of physical and biological attributes that, depending on the unique features of the site and the program, may be analyzed during the site planning and design process. Chapter 7 (Site Inventory: Cultural Attributes) concentrates on documenting relevant cultural, historic, and regulatory attributes. Chapter 8 (Site Analysis: Integration and Synthesis) describes how site opportunities and constraints for specific project programs are identified and documented in support of the subsequent phases of the site planning and design process.
The last three chapters of the book are in Part IV, Design and Implementation. Chapter 9 (Conceptual Design) addresses the spatial organization of the programmed uses and activities on the site. Chapter 10 (Design Development) addresses the spatial articulation of the organizational framework established in the conceptual design phase. This chapter explores design theory and "form-based" development regulations, which communities are increasingly employing to guide development and shape changes to the built environment. Chapter 11 (Project Implementation), the book's final chapter, addresses the permitting and approval processes, techniques for mitigating development impacts, and construction documentation and contract administration. The book concludes with an Appendix and a Glossary. The Appendix lists both commercial, non-profit, and government resources for data and other relevant planning and design information.
About the Author
James A Lagro Jr is Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a planner and a registered landscape architect with more than 25 years of experience as an educator, consultant, and designer in private practice. He has been published in Landscape Ecology, Landscape and Urban Planning, and other leading publications. |
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