Crossing the Expendable Landscape

by Bettina Drew

Noted essayist Bettina Drew takes the reader on an in-depth exploration of several American cities-- Stamford, Hilton Head, Las Vegas, Dallas, Celebration-- to examine the consequences of built environments that fail to reflect regional, historic, aesthetic, and social values. Drew talks to the everyday people who live in these cities, along with the urban planners and developers who created them, about the cultural impact of big-business-inspired living. She concludes with an overview of the ways in which some architects and planners are now working to humanize American landscape development. Always searching for the impact of physical environment on human happiness, Drew focuses on what has gone so wrong with mass architecture and reflects on the possibilities for built environments in the future.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Rhett Hirko · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published 22 years ago, and is now a fascinating read as we consider what has passed since then. At the time it was probably a shocking read, given the advance of suburban sprawl, income disparity, race issues and corporate influence over governance. What is fascinating now is, in some ways, how much hasn’t changed: income gaps keep widening, the BLM movement is forcing consideration to policing changes, and we expect a government entity - the Post Office - to be self sufficient as if it were a company. What is also fascinating is to see the return of urban density; technology supporting work-from-home in lieu of office presence (thanks to COVID-19), and reinvention of shopping malls into health care facilities. More towns are embracing farmers markets, supporting local proprietors and restaurants whilst sending big box retailers online - or underwater. I think where the author failed, ultimately, is only seen this more than two decades after its writing - that just as towns in Europe reinvented themselves, finally so are American ones - if only in part, but change is afoot. Europe has, after all, a thousand years on us. A really interesting read at this time.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of essays about several different American cities, along with some great background chapters that at first seem as if they should belong in another book. For example, there is a comprehensible chapter on the deregulation of the banking industry under Reagan and how that precipitated the S&L debacle of the late 80s-early 90's. What does that have to do in a book about urban landscapes? I guess a lot. One of Drew's first points in this book is how the ownership class in this country has become smaller, but their share of the finite pie of resources is larger. She was using data from the 80s, the situation is even worse now. Drew then shows that it is those with wealth and power who are doing the building/destroying of our living environment--she shows how the conditions of our mere living, in terms of space and work are being designed in ways that are becoming less and less democratic.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

she's mad!
i mean, yes its america, yes its ugly, yes its our fault. we need to fix it. report on it and offer solutions, which i guess is what she was doing by mentioning the New Urbanism and the Uses of Modernism at the end.
eh, either way, this book was a hold over from my thesis days that i had to read.