FROM THE RUDY BRUNER AWARDS FOR URBAN EXCELLENCE
The following readings are
taken from case studies published by the Bruner Foundation, as part of
the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. Complete citations and
more details about winning sites and the award can be found at the Bruner
Foundation home page.
Each of the readings below is an analytic case study based on on-site observagtion and interviews, and including comments from the RBA Selection Committee.
o NYC Greenmarket
o Beyond
Homelessness (award
application)
o The
Times Square (award
application)
o Tenant
Interim Lease Project
o Greenpoint
Manufacturing and Design Center (award
application)
o Project
Row Houses (award
application)
o Center
in the Square (award
application)
o ARTScorpsLA
(award
application)
o What Was Learned About
Excellence [analytic chapter from Sustaining
Urban Excellence; Learning from the Rudy Bruner Award, 1987-1993, by
Jay Farbstein, Robert Shibley, Polly Welch, and Richard Wener, with Emily
Axelrod].
Methods
o Chapters from Alan Jacobs,
Looking
at Cities
"Starting to Look"
"Clues"
These
chapters are used as part of the basic introduction to methods of observing
cities. They describe ways to understand how people use their urban
spaces, by noticing clues in the environment.
o Film, The
Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
A classic film, written and narrated by William H. Whyte and presented
on thre PBS Nova series. This film demonstrates the
use of film, time-lapse photography, and behavior observations in understanding
how people use space. It presents a series of principles for understanding
how the design of urban public open spaces affects use and desireability.
o Lewis Mumford, "The
Culture of Cities".
A classic work on the history of
Nature and the City
o Robert Sommer, "Farmers'
Markets as Community Events." pp. 57-82. In I. Altman & E. Zube.
(Eds.). Public Places and Spaces. New York: Plenum.
This paper
presents Sommer's studies on farmer's markets and discusses how they support
social interactions among shoppers in ways traditional food markets do
not.
o Roger Ulrich, "View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery , Science, Volume 224, April 1984
o Hartig, T., Mang, M. &
Evans, G. (1991). Restorative effects of natural environment experiences.
Environment and Behavior, 23, 3-26. back
Crime and the City
o "Defensible Space:
Deterring Crime and Building Community"
o Randall Atlas and
William LeBlanc, "The Impact of Environmental Road Devices on Crime: Case
Study Miami Shores, FL"
These papers both address issues of "Crime Prevention Through Environmental
Design" (CPTED). "Defensible Space" describes principles in public
housing design and neighborhood design that can, if applied, reduce crime
and
increase perceived safety, largely by increasing visibility, connections,
and common territory among people. Atlas and LeBlanc present an analysis
of a neighborhood in Florida where these principles were used, and shopw
a positive impact on crime there.
- suburb as recreation of
living with nature
Vaux and Olmstead
Planned suburbs - Short Hills, NJ, Riverside, Ill., Llewllyn Park, NJ