Environmental Design Library @ UC Berkeley

Urban Design

Urban Design is a selective bibliographic research guide to Internet sites and library resources supporting urban design research at UC Berkeley. Many additional resources and reference assistance are available in the Environmental Design Library, 210 Wurster Hall.

• Getting Started
• Gateway Sites
• Organizations
• Finding Books
• Bibliographies
• Finding Journal Articles
• Journals
• Finding Images & Plans
• Finding Maps & Aerial Photos
• Best Practices
• Standards
• Case Studies & Projects

UC Berkeley faculty, registered students, and staff who are off campus may use items marked UCB Only or UC Only by using the Library's off-campus access services.

Compiled by Deborah Sommer. Content reviewed: February 2010

= highly recommended

Getting Started

What is urban design? Is it a profession? a set of practices? the conceptual stuff that binds together architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture? Consensus apears to be elusive. For a readable overview of the discipline, see Urban Design, by Jonathan Barnett and Gary Hack, Chapter 13 in The Practice of Local Government Planning, 3rd ed., 2000, pp.307-340; EnvDesign HT167 P7 2000 2 copies, 1 on reserve. In addition, a sampling of classic and contemporary readings in urban design is offered in 2 recent compilations of similar title: The Urban design reader, Elizabeth MacDonald and Michael Larice, eds. (EnvDesign NA9040 U68 2007) and Urban design reader, Matthew Carmona and Steve Tiesdell, eds. (EnvDesign NA9040 U683 2007). With only about 20% overlap in selections, both are worth perusing.

Gateway Sites

• UMRG links (Univ. of Birmingham (UK),Urban Morphology Research Group) Directory of Web resources relating to urban morphology.
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/urban-morphology/links.aspx

Organizations

Here is a selection of organizations involved with some aspect of urban design. Many of these sites have full-text reports online, as well as useful related links.

• American Farmland Trust http://www.farmland.org/
• American Institute of Architects http://www.aia.org/
• American Planning Association http://www.planning.org/
• American Soc. of Landscape Architects http://www.asla.org/
• Center for Livable Communities http://www.lgc.org/center/
• Greenbelt Alliance http://www.greenbelt.org/
• International Downtown Association https://www.ida-downtown.org/eweb/startpage.aspx
• National Trust for Historic Preservation http://www.preservationnation.org/
• Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/
• Society of Architectural Historians Membership directory available as the December issue of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, EnvDesign NA11 A83. http://www.sah.org/
• Urban Design Group http://www.udg.org.uk/
• Urban Morphology Research (School of Geography, Univ. of Birmingham, UK)http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/urban-morphology/

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Finding Books

Here is a selection of subject terms to help locate books, reports, etc., in the library catalogs:

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Bibliographies

• Bibliography, IN: Redesigning cities: principles, practice, implementation, by Jonathan Barnett. Chicago: Planners Press, 2003, pp.295-298. Nicely organized brief bibliography of core readings in urban design.
  EnvDesign HT151 B37 2003

  Green Design Resources (UC Berkeley, Library) An annotated bibliographic research guide to research resources on sustainable design at the UC Berkeley libraries and on the Web.

  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/GreenAll.html

  History of city planning (UC Berkeley, Library) An annotated bibliographic research guide to research resources for the history of planning and urbanization at the UC Berkeley libraries.

  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/planning_history.html

  Sprawl and the New Urbanism (UC Berkeley, Library) A bibliographic research guide for the study of sprawl and the New Urbanism using UC Berkeley library and Web-based resources.

  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/planning_sprawl.html

  The Ten best urban design books ever written?, by Brenton Toderian, IN: Plan Canada, v.43:1 (spring 2003), pp.45-46.
  EnvDesign NA9000 P53

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Finding Journal Articles

See City Planning Indexes & Abstracts, Architecture Indexes & Abstracts, and Environmental Planning Indexes & Abstracts for additional indexes. For UCB or UC Only titles, go to The Library's home page→ Find Information→ Articles.

• America: history and life via EBSCO - UC Only Contains article abstracts and bibliographical citations of reviews & dissertations on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada.
Online ed.: 1964--
Print ed.: 1954--, Main E3 A43
• Art index retrospective & Art full text via WilsonWeb - UC OnlyIndexes journal articles in art and related fields, including architecture, art history, city planning, urban design, and landscape architecture.
Online ed.: Art Index Retrospective: 1929-1984; Art Full Text: 1984--
Print ed.: 1929-1994, EnvDesign N18 A72 Index
• Avery index to architectural periodicals via CSA - UC Only| Video Tutorial Contains citations to articles in 1,000+ periodicals in architecture, planning, urban design, and related disciplines.
Online ed.: 1890--
Print ed.: 1890-1995, EnvDesign fNA8 C64 1973 Index
• Business source complete via EBSCO - UCB Only Includes full text for more than 7,400 scholarly business journals and other sources, as well as country economic reports from the EIU, CountryWatch, etc. Great source for information on real property, housing development, redevelopment, and related issues.
Coverage: 1965--
• Index to historic preservation periodicals (National Trust for Historic Preservation Library) Indexes 325+ preservation journals and newsletters, including local publications such as Oakland Heritage Alliance News, BAHA News, Heritage Newsletter (Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage) and California Preservation.
Online ed.: 1991-- http://www.lib.umd.edu/NTL/catdat.html
Print ed.: 1979-1990; EnvDesign Z1251 A2 U51 1992 Index
• JSTOR - UCB Only A full-text searchable archive of interdisciplinary scholarly journals. Coverage begins with the first date of issue.
Coverage: Varies
• Planetizen A public interest information exchange for the urban planning and development community, the site includes news summaries from current newspaper and journal articles in several broad categories of planning topics, including urban design.
http://www.planetizen.com/
• Sociological abstracts via CSA - UC OnlyIndexes journal articles, book chapters, & reviews from over 1,900 journals, books, book chapters, and reviews in the social sciences. Excellent source for public policy topics.
Online ed.: 1963--; paper ed.: 1952--, Main HM15.5 S6
• TRID: the TRIS and ITRD database. A newly integrated database that combines the records from the Transportation Research Board's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide. A comprehensive bibliographic database of transportation research information. Includes some full-text publications. Covers literature from the 1960s to the present, with some coverage of prior years. Highway Research Board publications are covered back to 1923.
http://trid.trb.org/
• Urban studies & planning - UCB Only Provides indexing to and full text of 12 journals published by SAGE Publications and participating societies, some journals going back 37 years.
Coverage: Varies

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Journals

• Journal of industrial ecology - UCB Only
Online ed.: varies
Print ed.: 1997--, Engin TD194 J68 Display
• Journal of urban design via ProQuest - UCB Only
Online ed.: 1997 (v.2:3)--
Print ed.: 1996--, EnvDesign NA9000 J68
• Urban design & preservation quarterly. American Planning Association, Urban Design and Preservation Division. 1987--.
EnvDesign HT166 U222
• Urban design international via ProQuest - UCB Only "Aims to build the first international network for all of those involved in the multi-disciplinary tasks of urban design and management."
Coverage: 2002 (v.7:3/4)--.
• Urban morphology: journal of the International Seminar on Urban Form.
EnvDesign NA9000 U7263 Unbound & bound journal stacks

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Finding Images & Plans

See also the list Image & Sound Databases.

• American memory: historical collections for the National Digital Library (U.S. Library of Congress) The collections consist of "primary source and archival materials relating to American culture and history." 40 collections of 1 million+ digitized images searchable on the Web. Includes black-and-white photos, maps, documents, etc.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
• California heritage collection (UC Berkeley, Library) An online archive of more than 30,000 images illustrating California's history and culture from the collections of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Part of the Online Archive of California, a compilation of finding aids, or guides, to archival collections at more than 30 institutions.
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/calheritage.html
• Cities and buildings database (Univ. of Washington, Depts. of Architecture & Art History) "Contains over 5000 images ranging from New York to Central Asia, from African villages, to the Parc de la Villette, and conceptual sketches and models of Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project. These have all been scanned from original slides or drawn from documents in the public domain."
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cities/
• Image sources for the built environment (UC Berkeley, Library) List of links to image databases and search engines for architecture, landscape, and urban design.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/research_images.html
• NAIL: NARA archival image locator (U.S. Natl. Archives & Records Administration) Searchable database of records in the U.S. Nat'l Archives: print, still photos, film, video, etc.
http://www.archives.gov/
• SPIRO(UC Berkeley, Architecture Visual Resources Center) The online public access catalog to approximately 16% of the AVRL's collection of over 200,000 35mm slides. The collection is available to UCB faculty and graduate students only.
http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/
• To scale: one hundred urban plans, by Eric J. Jenkins. NY: Routledge, 2008. See the online table of contents for a list of cities and public spaces included.
EnvDesign NA9070 J46 2008 Reference

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Finding Maps & Aerial Photographs

Note that the UCB Earth Sciences & Map Library, 50 McCone Hall, has an outstanding collection of maps, atlases, etc.

• The Earth Sciences & Map Library has an excellent collection of aerial photos of California, including a master index. Some digitized aerial photos of the San Francisco Bay Area are available on The Library's site.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/aerial2.html
• Google Earth (Google) Offers online satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings.
http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
• Microsoft Research Maps (MSR Maps) (Google) Searchable repository of aerial photographs and satellite images.
http://msrmaps.com/

• Index to early twentieth century city plans appearing in guidebooks, Baedeker, Muirhead-Blue guides, Murray, I. J. G. R., etc., to provide worldwide coverage of over 2,000 plans to over ..., by Harold M. Otness. Santa Cruz: Western Assoc. of Map Libraries, 1978.
EnvDesign G1028 O861 1978 Reference
• Index to nineteenth century city plans appearing in guidebooks: Baedeker, Murray, Joanne, Black, Appleton, Meyer, ... to provide coverage of over 1,800 plans to nearly 600 communities, found in ..., by Harold M. Otness. Santa Cruz: Western Assoc. of Map Libraries, 1980.
EnvDesign G1028 A12 O86 Reference

• An Atlas of rare city maps: comparative urban design, 1830-1842, by Melville C. Branch. NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997. Scales differ. International coverage.
EnvDesign fG1028 B65 1997 Reference
• Bird's eye views: historic lithographs of North American cities, by John W. Reps. NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.
EnvDesign fNE2454 R45 1998 Reference & circulating
• U.S. historical city maps (Univ. of Texas, Austin) Digitized maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the Univ. of Texas, Austin.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historic_us_cities.html
• Views and plans of North American cities: a bibliography of guides to the location of graphic records of urban development prior to 1900, John Reps, comp. [3d ed.] Ithaca, NY: Dept. of City and Regional Planning, Cornell Univ., 1978.
EnvDesign Z6027 A5 R4 1978 Reference; Earth Sci Z6027 A5 R4 1978

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Best Practices

• Ahwahnee principles for resource-efficient communities, by Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Stefanos Polyzoides. Prepared by the Local Government Commission, 1991. These principles helped define the New Urbanism and the smart growth phenomenon.
http://www.lgc.org/ahwahnee/principles.html
Print ed.: EnvDesign HD166 W44 L38 1992, pp.2-4.
• Green cities California. Includes the best practice recommendations of a coalition of ten local California governments, including Berkeley, San Francisco, San Jose, and Marin.
http://www.greencitiescalifornia.org/
• New urbanism: best practices guide, by Robert Steuteville, Philip Langdon and special contributors. 4th ed. Ithaca, NY: New Urban News Pubications, 2009. Good case studies source.
EnvDesign HT175 N582 2009
• Rebuilding American communities: reinvestment by design: a collection of best practices, a program of Partners for Livable Cities. [Washington, DC]: Partners for Livable Communities, 1995.
EnvDesign HT151 R37 1995
• Streets and the shaping of towns and cities, by Michael Southworth, Eran Ben-Joseph. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Includes standards for street design.
EnvDesign & Trans TE279 S58 1997
• UDM: urban design management: a guide to good practice, Antti Ahlava and Harry Edelman, eds. NY: Taylor & Francis, 2009.
EnvDesign HT166 U7126 2009
• The Urban design handbook: techniques and working methods, by Urban Design Associates; Ray Gindroz, et al. NY: Norton, 2003.
EnvDesign NA9105 U73 2003
• Urban design: practices, pedagogies, premises Proceedings of an April 2002 conference organized by Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design programs of Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Includes detailed descriptions of eight North American urban design programs.
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/files/gsapp/imceshared/Conference%20Program.pdf
Print ed.: EnvDesign HT165.5 U72 2002

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Standards

• The Code of the city: standards and the hidden language of place making, by Eran Ben-Joseph. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
EnvDesign HT166 B3974 2005
• Form-based codes: a guide for planners, urban designers, municipalities, and developers, by Daniel G. Parolek, Karen Parolek, Paul C. Crawford. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2008. Online table of contents.
EnvDesign NA9050.5 P37 2008
• Planning and urban design standards, by Frederick Steiner, Kent Butler, American Planning Association. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley, 2007. Online table of contents.
EnvDesign TH2031 S74 2007
• SmartCode: version 9 and manual, by Andres Duany, [et al.] [Ithaca, NY]: New Urban News Publications, [2008].
EnvDesign KF5697 A44 2008
• Time-saver standards for urban design, Donald Watson, Alan Plattus, Robert G. Shibley, eds. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Online table of contents.
EnvDesign HT166 T47 2003 Reference
• Urban design: a typology of procedures and products, by Jon Lang. Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Architectural Press, 2005.
    Illustrated with more than 50 case studies. Bibliographical references: pp.397-409.
EnvDesign HT166 L328 2005
• Urban planning and design criteria, by Joseph De Chiara. 3rd ed. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1982. Answers practical questions arising constantly in urban planning and design. Useful where professional staff is limited. Covers typical conditions in the U.S.
EnvDesign NA9108 D4 Reference

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Case Studies & Projects

Where can you find case studies?

• Case studies are often published in journal articles, so consult the indexes and journals listed elsewhere in this guide.
• Some case studies are presented as conference papers, which are sometimes published as part of conference proceedings (see below), as well as in journals.
• Look for projects that have received formal recognition; awards announcements will usually provide details about a project that may be helpful to you. These announcements are sometimes published in journals, as well as on the Web sites of the organizations making the awards. See, for example, Urban Land Institute award winning projects 2006 (EnvDesign HD1391.S74 2006).
• You may also discover compilations of case studies published as books; start with the Melvyl catalog: combine a keyword search describing your topic with a subject search with the phrases case studies or case method.
• See also titles in the Best Practices section of this guide. "Best practices" are often illustrated with case studies.

• Case study research: design and methods, by Robert K. Yin. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2003.
EnvDesign, Main H62 Y56 2003
• Designing community: charrettes, master plans and form-based codes, by David Walters. London: Elsevier, 2007.
EnvDesign HN49 C6 W35 2007
• Program evaluation: methods and case studies, by Emil J. Posavac, Raymond G. Carey. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
EnvDesign, Main, Public Hlth H62.5 U5 P62 2003
• Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, by Bruce L. Berg, 6th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2007. See Chapter 10: Case Studies.
EnvDesign, Main, Opto H61 B4715 2007

• Cities and growth: a policy handbook, Roger L. Kemp, ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008. Includes numerous case studies as well as recommendations for best practices.
EnvDesign HT165.52 C58 2008
• Development case studies (Urban Land Institute) - UCB only Provides detailed case studies of completed projects ranging from low-income housing to mixed-use downtown developments to commercial and industrial sites. Formerly titled Project reference file, 1971-1997; the older PRF case studies are indexed on the Web by topic and project, 1971-1996, by the MIT Rotch Library.
• Request User ID and Password at the Environmental Design Library Reference Desk.
• IMPORTANT: Click the LOGOUT button after every session; otherwise the database is unavailable to everyone.
Online ed.: 1985- http://research.uli.org/DK/CaStd/re_CaStd_DevCsStd_fst.html
Print ed.: 1971-1997; EnvDesign NA9000 U725 P7 Reference
• Downtowns: revitalizing the centers of small urban communities, Michael A. Burayidi, ed. NY: Routledge, 2001.
EnvDesign HT175 D69 2001
• Honor awards for urban design (American Institute of Architects) Includes images of projects.
http://www.aia.org/practicing/awards/2012/regional-urban-design
• PapersFirst via FirstSearch/OCLC - UC OnlyContains 580,000+ citations for papers presented at worldwide conferences, symposia, meetings, expositions, congresses, and workshops received at The British Library. Excellent source for interdisciplinary work; the index covers disciplines in the social sciences, sciences, arts, and the humanities.
Coverage: October 1993--
• Proceedings via FirstSearch/OCLC - UC Only Indexes worldwide conferences, symposia, meetings, expositions, and congresses, covering a wide variety of disciplines.
Coverage: 1993--
• Urban design: a typology of procedures and products, by Jon Lang. Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Architectural Press, 2005. Illustrated with more than 50 case studies.
EnvDesign HT166 L328 2005
• ULI Award-winning Projects. Washington, DC: ULI-the Urban Land Institute. 2005- .
EnvDesign call no. varies
• Urban planning today: a Harvard design magazine reader, William S. Saunders, ed. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2006. Online table of contents.
EnvDesign HT166 U7433 2006

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