Last Harvest: From Cornfield to New Town: Real Estate Development from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-First Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway
Tuesday, 20. July 2010
Product Description
When Witold Rybczynski first heard about New Daleville, it was only a developer’s idea, attached to ninety acres of cornfield an hour and a half west of Philadelphia. Over the course of five years, Rybczynski met and talked to everyone involved in the building of this residential subdivision — from the developers to the township leaders, whose approval they needed, to the home builders and engineers and, ultimately, the first families who moved in.
Always eloquent and illuminating, the award-winning author of Home and A Clearing in the Distance looks at this “neotraditional” project, with its houses built close together to encourage a sense of intimacy and community, and explains the trends in American domestic architecture — from where we place our kitchens and fences to why our bathroomsget larger every year.
Last Harvest was voted one of the ten best books of 2008 by the editors of Planetizen, and as Publishers Weekly said, “Rybczynski provides historical and cultural perspectives in a style reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell, debunking the myth of urban sprawl and explaining American homeowners’ preference for single-family dwellings.”
ileana Says:
This is a great book on how suburban development works. It is very well researched and all the ideas are based on deep reasoning. There’s no opinionated ranting, it was a pleasure to follow the stories described in the book.
If you are into development, new urbanism and urban design, this book’s for you.
Rating: 5 / 5
Garry Meus Says:
A design profession relief from the more informative norm that planning, landscape architecture, urban design, and architecture are represented by. Rybczynski presents, in a very storyteller-like way, the process from visioning to implementation to construction, and finally, the homeowner’s first thoughts of their new home. It is rare to read accounts of this genre that keep you focused on how things will actually work out in the end: especially when thinking of the arduous process behind the finalization of land development projects. Although most of the book was explained with tremendous success towards transmitting the sequences involved in building communities, it would have given the reader a better perspective to see how the process was transformed and the plans that made all of the discourse worth it in the end.
Nevertheless, a great account told in honest fashion, and backed by historic and cultural facts that have shaped land development in the US.
Rating: 4 / 5
John Michlig Says:
An informative trip through the local planning process that could have been that much more useful if illustrated with site plans and building elevations. Still highly recommended.
Rating: 4 / 5
Pierre Gauthier Says:
This book sets out to chronicle the development of an exurban cornfield from the moment the land is bought by a developer to when homes are delivered to buyers. The project is misleadingly presented to the reader as neo-traditional. In fact, minimum lot size is 5000 square feet, the overall number of homes won’t be greater than 120 and of course there will never be any stores to speak of.
Largely pretending to report actual conversations, printed in very large characters and broken up in very short chapters, it is certainly easy to read but sadly devoid of any interest. The reader is flooded with superficial, irrelevant details (`he has a beard’, `she has short red hair’) and occasionally with absurd affirmations (`L.A. is denser than New York’).
The only illustrations are tiny black and white photographs or plans, maybe two inches square, placed at the beginning of some chapters.
Overall, this work is unworthy of an architect, let alone a university professor, and can by no means be recommended to anyone.
Rating: 1 / 5
Ronald Starr Says:
This is about the development of a small residential development in the countryside of Pennsylvania, using the “traditional neighborhood development” approach–sort of like 1880-1920 urban developments. Walking neighborhoods, small lots, hidden garages, large front porches,local commercial. Common is fake Victorian style house.
A developer took over the project in a Southeaster Pennsylvania area after local government officials refused two proposals from an orginal developer. Apparently, this was in the early 2000s, although the author is not clear about the exact time. There were a couple of major problems with the the project: difficulties with local government officials and mistakes in locating model homes. The volume also includes some interesting history of urban and suburban development in the USA. The book ends in 2006, just as the market starting going south. I sure wish I could know how it worked out, given the bad real estate markets in 2007-2009.
Rating: 4 / 5