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America’s Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois
184
Book reviews
Part 2 is devoted to ``Landscape evaluation,'' considered ``necessary as an investigation tool before any political decision, forming the objective basis on which ®nal decisions are produced.'' Evaluation is accepted to be focused on problems or processes. The spatio-temporal context (scale), in which the procedure should be executed, has to be de®ned. Three types of indicators are distinguished: process indicators (e.g. integrity, fragility, landscape changes), pattern indicators (landscape structure), and bioindicators (key stone species evaluation, animal behaviour). Farina also considers a ``super-synthetic indicator'': landscape health, de®ned as ``the integrated condition of a complex system,'' and hence applicable to a landscape or region. Consequently, tools are presented which enable scientists to perform their evaluation: the use of neutral models, the calculation of landscape metrics s.s., and the application of fractal geometry and fuzzy theory upon these metrics. The current tools all re¯ect the recent tendency towards incorporation of quantitative data in landscape study, inducing objectivity and accuracy in the decision process. This positive evolution is hence recognized by the author, and re¯ects that he's a pioneer of contemporary landscape ecology. Part 3 touches the core of landscape ecology: ``Management and conservation of landscapes.'' ``The application of landscape paradigms in practice means the use of methodological approaches to manage, conserve and restore land mosaics.'' Farina starts with clarifying some concepts and terms, to point out their special signi®cance with regard to landscape paradigms, e.g. the keystone concept and the concept of refugia as biodiversity hotspots. Because of their close relation to the practice of landscape management, these descriptions were not inserted in the preceding chapters. The subject is again elaborated using the concept of scale (large and multiple scale) and the object of management: species (populations), patterns (e.g. ecotones, linear habitats, remnants), processes (e.g. disturbance), and functional areas (e.g. ecosystem-based management). Conservation, hierarchically structured as protecting processes, landscapes, habitats, and species, is discussed as a ®nal topic in the textbook. Preservation aspects of biodiversity hotspots, riparian landscapes, oases, cultural landscapes, soils, managed forest diversity, and habitat fragments are used to implement the theoretical concepts related to the landscape paradigm.
Both textbooks of Almo Farina are essential volumes for ecologists and environmentalists active at the landscape scale; their comprehensive content and logical structure provide to the reader an ef®cient and complete source of information. The author's ability of explaining complex paradigms dealing with a multiscalar complex object like the landscape ecosystem, makes this book suitable for scientists encountering new ideas and research trends. The volume is interspersed with over 100 ®gures and schemes, illustrating the text and forming a complementary part of many theories and concepts. Therefore, ``Landscape Ecology in Action'' is a welcome and important contribution to landscape ecology, and will act as a stimulus for further research in large-scale ecology. It is intended to serve as a textbook ``for undergraduate and graduate students, planners and decisionmakers,'' and requires no fundamental prescience. The glossary Ð a tradition in Farina's books Ð helps unexperienced readers and stimulates uniform terminology among (landscape) ecologists. Jan Bogaert Department of Biology, University of Antwerp Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Tel.: 32-3-820-22-82; fax: 32-3-820-22-71 E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Bogaert) PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 3 8 - 9
America's Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois Gregory C. Randall, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2000, 236 pp. Most people are not aware that Park Forest, Illinois, located on the south side of Chicago, was the ®rst planned community to emerge in the United States immediately after World War II. If Park Forest has any familiarity to residents beyond Chicago, it is because the community served as the setting for William H. Whyte's book, The Organization Man (Whyte, 1956), one of the classic interpretations of American suburban life during the 1950s. ``In suburbia'', Whyte noted, ``organization man is trying, quite consciously, to develop a new kind of roots to replace what he left behind'' (p. 268). Gregory. C. Randall's book, America's Original GI Town, provides a comprehensive overview of Park
Book reviews
Forest's ®rst 50 years, and also offer insights to the ``new kind of roots'' that residents sought to establish within the community. The book, written by someone who spent his youth in Park Forest, is not just a conventional history of a post-war suburb. Since Randall is a professional landscape architect, the volume also gives considerable attention to the design, planning, and landscape issues that have de®ned Park Forest for half a century. After Randall introduces Park Forest's builders Ð Philip Klutznick, Carroll Fuller Sweet, and Nathan Manilow Ð he devotes a lengthy chapter to the planning prototypes that in¯uenced Park Forest's development: Riverside, Illinois; the English Garden Cities of Letchworth and Welwyn; Radburn, New Jersey; and the American Greenbelt Towns. ``Park Forest was the child of these planning concepts,'' Randall notes, ``and a direct blood relative of these communities and the grandchild of Chicago's own Riverside. It is also possibly the only child of this parentage to mature and grow old'' (p. 51). Of special note is Elbert Peets, a well-known landscape architect who developed the initial plans for both Greendale, Wisconsin (one of the three Greenbelt towns), and Park Forest. Although some of Peets's proposals for Park Forest were modi®ed to meet the changing market conditions of the 1950s, the landscape architect established a basic foundation for Park Forest that re¯ected his understanding of Garden City and Greenbelt town planning principles. In fact, Randall claims that Park Forest is the fourth and last of the Greenbelt towns. The quality of the planning and environment provided at Park Forest, along with the relatively low-cost housing, proved especially attractive to recently discharged military veterans and their young families (this was, after all, the height of the baby boom). A total of 3010 families moved into Park Forest's apartment units between August 1948 and August 1950. Then, during the 1950s, another 5500 families were accommodated in individual dwelling units with prices that ranged from US$ 10,000 to 35,000. According to Randall, Park Forest's combination of private initiatives and federal guarantees served as ``a role model for home building (in the nation) for the rest of the century'' (p. 184). Although about one-third of the population turned over each year during Park Forest's formative years, its residents developed numerous organizations and
185
clubs (more than sixty by 1955), and joined them at a frenetic pace. One unique aspect of the book is a penultimate chapter entitled ``The Legacy.'' Here, Randall provides several ``lessons'' that Park Forest offers, which range from land selection and professional planning to cost controls and marketing. Most interesting, however, are Randall's recommendations for the future of Park Forest, including his suggestions for the reuse of outdated facilities. Using his training and experience as a landscape architect and town planner, Randall offers his proposal for the redesign of the shopping center. Some of these changes have already occurred since the manuscript was completed in 1997. It would be interesting to know if any preservationists voiced opposition to these activities, which obviously resulted in the modi®cation of Park Forest's historic fabric. Other books of a similar nature undoubtedly will appear in future years as other American planned communities approach their 50th anniversaries. America's Original GI Town, which emphasizes planning and design considerations, as well as traditional narrative history, can serve as a model for these studies. Reference Whyte, W.H., 1956. The Organization Man. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Arnold R. Alanen Department of Landscape Architecture University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706, USA Fax: 1-608-265-6262 E-mail address: [email protected] (A.R. Alanen) PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 3 9 - 0
William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles Catherine Mulholland, Berkeley, 2000, 411 pp. Water is central to Los Angeles' history, and central to its future. That metropolis blooms on the desert only through use of Owens Valley water that comes from over 200 miles away Ð or should I say through theft
Book reviews
Part 2 is devoted to ``Landscape evaluation,'' considered ``necessary as an investigation tool before any political decision, forming the objective basis on which ®nal decisions are produced.'' Evaluation is accepted to be focused on problems or processes. The spatio-temporal context (scale), in which the procedure should be executed, has to be de®ned. Three types of indicators are distinguished: process indicators (e.g. integrity, fragility, landscape changes), pattern indicators (landscape structure), and bioindicators (key stone species evaluation, animal behaviour). Farina also considers a ``super-synthetic indicator'': landscape health, de®ned as ``the integrated condition of a complex system,'' and hence applicable to a landscape or region. Consequently, tools are presented which enable scientists to perform their evaluation: the use of neutral models, the calculation of landscape metrics s.s., and the application of fractal geometry and fuzzy theory upon these metrics. The current tools all re¯ect the recent tendency towards incorporation of quantitative data in landscape study, inducing objectivity and accuracy in the decision process. This positive evolution is hence recognized by the author, and re¯ects that he's a pioneer of contemporary landscape ecology. Part 3 touches the core of landscape ecology: ``Management and conservation of landscapes.'' ``The application of landscape paradigms in practice means the use of methodological approaches to manage, conserve and restore land mosaics.'' Farina starts with clarifying some concepts and terms, to point out their special signi®cance with regard to landscape paradigms, e.g. the keystone concept and the concept of refugia as biodiversity hotspots. Because of their close relation to the practice of landscape management, these descriptions were not inserted in the preceding chapters. The subject is again elaborated using the concept of scale (large and multiple scale) and the object of management: species (populations), patterns (e.g. ecotones, linear habitats, remnants), processes (e.g. disturbance), and functional areas (e.g. ecosystem-based management). Conservation, hierarchically structured as protecting processes, landscapes, habitats, and species, is discussed as a ®nal topic in the textbook. Preservation aspects of biodiversity hotspots, riparian landscapes, oases, cultural landscapes, soils, managed forest diversity, and habitat fragments are used to implement the theoretical concepts related to the landscape paradigm.
Both textbooks of Almo Farina are essential volumes for ecologists and environmentalists active at the landscape scale; their comprehensive content and logical structure provide to the reader an ef®cient and complete source of information. The author's ability of explaining complex paradigms dealing with a multiscalar complex object like the landscape ecosystem, makes this book suitable for scientists encountering new ideas and research trends. The volume is interspersed with over 100 ®gures and schemes, illustrating the text and forming a complementary part of many theories and concepts. Therefore, ``Landscape Ecology in Action'' is a welcome and important contribution to landscape ecology, and will act as a stimulus for further research in large-scale ecology. It is intended to serve as a textbook ``for undergraduate and graduate students, planners and decisionmakers,'' and requires no fundamental prescience. The glossary Ð a tradition in Farina's books Ð helps unexperienced readers and stimulates uniform terminology among (landscape) ecologists. Jan Bogaert Department of Biology, University of Antwerp Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Tel.: 32-3-820-22-82; fax: 32-3-820-22-71 E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Bogaert) PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 3 8 - 9
America's Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois Gregory C. Randall, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2000, 236 pp. Most people are not aware that Park Forest, Illinois, located on the south side of Chicago, was the ®rst planned community to emerge in the United States immediately after World War II. If Park Forest has any familiarity to residents beyond Chicago, it is because the community served as the setting for William H. Whyte's book, The Organization Man (Whyte, 1956), one of the classic interpretations of American suburban life during the 1950s. ``In suburbia'', Whyte noted, ``organization man is trying, quite consciously, to develop a new kind of roots to replace what he left behind'' (p. 268). Gregory. C. Randall's book, America's Original GI Town, provides a comprehensive overview of Park
Book reviews
Forest's ®rst 50 years, and also offer insights to the ``new kind of roots'' that residents sought to establish within the community. The book, written by someone who spent his youth in Park Forest, is not just a conventional history of a post-war suburb. Since Randall is a professional landscape architect, the volume also gives considerable attention to the design, planning, and landscape issues that have de®ned Park Forest for half a century. After Randall introduces Park Forest's builders Ð Philip Klutznick, Carroll Fuller Sweet, and Nathan Manilow Ð he devotes a lengthy chapter to the planning prototypes that in¯uenced Park Forest's development: Riverside, Illinois; the English Garden Cities of Letchworth and Welwyn; Radburn, New Jersey; and the American Greenbelt Towns. ``Park Forest was the child of these planning concepts,'' Randall notes, ``and a direct blood relative of these communities and the grandchild of Chicago's own Riverside. It is also possibly the only child of this parentage to mature and grow old'' (p. 51). Of special note is Elbert Peets, a well-known landscape architect who developed the initial plans for both Greendale, Wisconsin (one of the three Greenbelt towns), and Park Forest. Although some of Peets's proposals for Park Forest were modi®ed to meet the changing market conditions of the 1950s, the landscape architect established a basic foundation for Park Forest that re¯ected his understanding of Garden City and Greenbelt town planning principles. In fact, Randall claims that Park Forest is the fourth and last of the Greenbelt towns. The quality of the planning and environment provided at Park Forest, along with the relatively low-cost housing, proved especially attractive to recently discharged military veterans and their young families (this was, after all, the height of the baby boom). A total of 3010 families moved into Park Forest's apartment units between August 1948 and August 1950. Then, during the 1950s, another 5500 families were accommodated in individual dwelling units with prices that ranged from US$ 10,000 to 35,000. According to Randall, Park Forest's combination of private initiatives and federal guarantees served as ``a role model for home building (in the nation) for the rest of the century'' (p. 184). Although about one-third of the population turned over each year during Park Forest's formative years, its residents developed numerous organizations and
185
clubs (more than sixty by 1955), and joined them at a frenetic pace. One unique aspect of the book is a penultimate chapter entitled ``The Legacy.'' Here, Randall provides several ``lessons'' that Park Forest offers, which range from land selection and professional planning to cost controls and marketing. Most interesting, however, are Randall's recommendations for the future of Park Forest, including his suggestions for the reuse of outdated facilities. Using his training and experience as a landscape architect and town planner, Randall offers his proposal for the redesign of the shopping center. Some of these changes have already occurred since the manuscript was completed in 1997. It would be interesting to know if any preservationists voiced opposition to these activities, which obviously resulted in the modi®cation of Park Forest's historic fabric. Other books of a similar nature undoubtedly will appear in future years as other American planned communities approach their 50th anniversaries. America's Original GI Town, which emphasizes planning and design considerations, as well as traditional narrative history, can serve as a model for these studies. Reference Whyte, W.H., 1956. The Organization Man. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Arnold R. Alanen Department of Landscape Architecture University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706, USA Fax: 1-608-265-6262 E-mail address: [email protected] (A.R. Alanen) PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 3 9 - 0
William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles Catherine Mulholland, Berkeley, 2000, 411 pp. Water is central to Los Angeles' history, and central to its future. That metropolis blooms on the desert only through use of Owens Valley water that comes from over 200 miles away Ð or should I say through theft