Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville

by Witold Rybczynski

Traces the creation of a Pennsylvania residential subdivision from its planning stage to the residence of its first owners, in an account that offers insight into the long process of development and how it is related to sprawl and ex-urban growth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Urbanism, Architecture, Urban Planning, Urban, History, Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Witold Rybczynski was born in Edinburgh, of Polish parentage, raised in London, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, where he also taught for twenty years. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also co-edits the Wharton Real Estate Review. Rybczynski has designed and built houses as a registered architect, as well as doing practical experiments in low-cost housing, which took him to Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, and China.

(From www.witoldrybczynski.com)

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgive me while I geek out over the next few paragraphs...

This book is a pretty decent recounting of the development process from inception to completion. For anyone who assumes that real estate developers are heartless, soulless, gutless, phallicly-challenged, money-grubbing bastards, I recommend that you spend a long weekend and read this book. (By the way, we're not many, if any, of those things listed above.)

The book chronicles the full development process of a "neotraditional" development in BFE Pennsylvania. I can't specifically agree with the basic principles and business plan the developers landed on for this project, but hey - they had a vision and an idea and the willingness to fight the good fight to see it happen.

The cynics in the room will look at this book and think simply that it is a long-winded explanation about how yet another real estate developer raped and destroyed prime farmland and contributed to the further slide of America into the moral morass of irrevocable carbon-belching exurban sprawl.

On the surface, I'd agree with you.

But the book has a warmth- an intimacy- that isn't frequently felt whilst chronicling subject of real estate development. The players in the development process are portrayed as regular people - not hellbent on dollar-dollar bills, y'all - and not specifically thinking that their single development is going to change the tide in real estate development throughout the entire mid-Atlantic seaboard. It's an honest accounting of the vision, setbacks, financial constraints, and market realities that go into real estate development. And for its stark simplicity, it's beautiful.

Witold Rybczynski doesn't play favorites very often in this book- but in the few cases where his objectivity wears thin, the daylight shines through his overstretched historical prose and belies his true feelings on the impact, value, and perception of certain types of real estate development. Rybczynski seems to me to be a proponent of the "westward ho" school of development - namely, that insanely American mantra that every man, regardless of creed or color, has the right to his own plot of land. Or her plot of land. Or their plot of land. Whatever.

The issue I most take offense to is his stark prose on the vast expanse of available land remaining for development in the US. As if he were simply stating his preference for charcoal grey socks over black socks, he lays out the strikingly jarring statement that there is ineed plenty of land remaining in the US for people to have what they want - namely, a house and a plot of land. (The fact that we do NOTHING productive with this land- save mow it twenty times a year with a big-ass riding tractor- is a point I'll save for another commentary- See Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for thoughts on what we SHOULD be doing with our suburban groomed lawns)

His chronicling of the very inception of the housing bubble and subsequent sub-prime shenanigans is an eerie testament to the way so many people arrogantly assumed that real estate values would simply continue to climb higher and higher.

The way the development was pigeonholed into lower lot prices, coupled with the fact that only a national builder could turn a profit on the parcels, makes for a tremendously interesting lesson in economies of scale and the intricacies of local real estate markets. As Rbyczynski says, home building is one of the few mass-production efforts remaining in modern manufacturing that has yet to be standardized and turned into an assembly line process...despite many attempts in the past that have been met with varying degrees of success and failure.

In short, this book is a fantastic read for anyone who wants to learn about the human side of real estate development. I recommend this book equally to those who live in generic, mass-produced tract housing in the middle of a "was" cornfield as much as I recommend it to the occupant of an urban-setting rehabilitated brownstone. While the two of you may be coming from different angles on the issue of exurbia vs. urban infill, this book will provide a common ground and a wealth of historical information on why our blessed America looks the way it does today.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle is a tad grandiose, but the book actually focuses on the real nuts and bolts of constructing a fairly typical suburban subdivision. It highlights the perils of sewer permits and the drama (such as there may be) of contracts with a local water utility. Written just as the housing market was crashing and burning, it also gives hints as to why all those home builders just couldn't stop building.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

New Urbanism is a topic dear to my heart and also one I've been professionally involved in as a longtime member of and consultant for the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and co-editor w/ my wife of the CNU charter book, Charter of the New Urbanism (McGraw-Hill, 2000). This book does not do justice to its topic. It focuses on one aspect of New Urbanism--the development of new suburbs that are more compact, diverse and walkable than typical master-planned, garage-dominated, cul-de-sac suburbia. The author walks you through every step of finance, zoning, design, planning and construction of a subdivision called New Dalesville in Chester County, Pa. One of the book's weaknesses is that the main characters--the developer and his planners--just aren't that interesting. Or maybe they are but they do not face any major travails or dramas in getting their project approved. In any case much of the book's "action" takes place in planning board hearings that are essentially transcripted. In every other chapter the author takes off on a "bigger subject"--how suburbs came to be, why we live in houses, etc. Rybcinski's weakness as an urban thinker has always been that he tries to be a realist but winds up being an apologist for business as usual--Phoenix is not really sprawl, suburban development simply responds to the marketplace, etc. He regurgitates the usual Independence Institute drivel about how the country is still 95 % empty so why worry about growth patterns? Unfortunately this type of thinking got us where we are today--facing crises in climate, housing, energy, infrastructure, education. The way we live, where we live and how we get around do matter.

I recommend this book as a primer to anyone interested in how and why suburbs get built. He does walk you through this process clearly.

I also recommend, "A Clearing in the Distance," a great biography by Rybcynski of Frederick Law Olmsted--abolitionist, experimental farmer, landscape architect of Central Park and many great city park systems, co-founder of the National Park system, co-creator of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. This is a remarkable book and a true life & times.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A biography of a housing development. Not everybody's idea of a great read, but I think it raised and attempted to answer a lot of interesting questions, like “Why can't we have nice things?”

I don't know how much valuable information we can get out of this book now, 15 years after its 2007 publication, but if this book could be entombed in an ant-proof case for a few hundred years, it may be quite useful because it could tell future sociologists, if any, quite a bit about us, both about our routine life and our about seemingly intractable problems.

I'm a cheapskate. I got this book for free from the public library, one of the few remaining beacons of sanity in our increasingly lunatic era. It's great that tens of thousands of volumes of subjects on the countless matters of which I am ignorant (including, in this case, real estate development and architecture) are available, literally for the taking.

Nevertheless, I wished for a super-duper expensively-enhanced version of this book (available free from the library) in which, for example, when “dentil molding” is mentioned, you could see a beautiful color photograph of what it was. My super-deluxe edition would also have lovely hand-drawn maps, both of the development in its various stages of development and of the larger area around the development.

Of course, in the absence of a super-duper etc of this book, Google photos will do a good job of getting the information you need, but I'm reading more library books now exactly because I want to separate myself from the pull of the electronic screen.

I shouldn't complain too much, because sometimes tumbling down these informational rabbit holes yields unexpected bits that amplify, or perhaps comment on, this book's message. For example, a mention of Louis Kahn's Mill Creek public housing project in Philadelphia (p. 17) led me to find out that, in 2018 (long after this book went to press), the project was demolished.

In an attempt to remedy the lamentable lack of pictures and maps in this book, I offer you the follow links:

– a slideshow about this housing development with commentary by the author on the website of Slate magazine here,

– a ten-minute-plus YouTube video, taken from a drone during or near the year 2019, of the New Daleville housing development here,

– a .pdf download, available here, is mostly text by the author of this book, summarizing some of the ideas found therein, but it also has some of the same photos (taken by the author) that appear in the book, except in color.

This book was published before the collapse of the US housing bubble – it's interesting to take a look at what life seemed like shortly before the deluge.

I often walk around and say “Why do we live like this?” I don't mean that in a critical way. I mean “Why this way, and not some other way?” This book is a clue about how we live where we do and how we do. Could we live better? Could we change the incentives so that houses are prettier and we have a greater sense of community? After reading this, some days I think yes, some days no.

Am I smarter than I was before? It's hard to tell, but at least now I know what dentil molding is.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive piece of work, which I read at two sittings. The review you want to read is Penelope Green's, at the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/boo...

Rybczynski writes a very nice portrait of the contemporary subdivision planning and building process, with the focus on a particular exurb near his home in Philadelphia.
In the process, you'll learn a lot about the history of suburban living in America -- and perhaps unlearn some persistent misinformation from urban intellectuals who don't like the suburbs.

[pea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

putting my feelings for mass uncreative development aside...
well written, thorough, supplemental information compliments the whole.
the follow ups were interesting.
but here we are, a decade plus later... curious on where it is now.

so much more but this is not a blog.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've just finished Last Harvest by Witold Rybczynski, which is the story of how a piece of land in Pennsylvania was developed according to "neotraditional" principles.

I expected to like this book a lot, in part because of the familiar scenery ("The Arcadia offices are in a small but imposing granite building at the main crossroads of Wayne...") and in part because I'm interested in the design of towns. The book is well-written and the people he profiles are well-meaning, but in the end, not that much actually happens here. A development is proposed, and with many niggling changes, it is approved. Then it is built, and finds only moderate popularity among homebuyers.

The book wants to be about neotraditional planning, but it has no maps or illustrations and isn't a very good explanation of the concept. But even more disappointing (though not Rybczynski's fault) is the fact that the development isn't very traditional, as photos I found attest. It's traditional in the sense that it has straight roads and houses on relatively small lots, but in its placement relative to other amenities, its driveways, and its lack of commercial space (even for a corner store), it's resolutely suburban. In this sense, it lacks the aspects that I find most intriguing and appealing about new urbanism.

I can think of several other books about town planning that are much better than this one, and parts of it are even available on Slate, so the verdict is: 3 stars.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valuable look at American suburban housing developments and the land use process they must go through. The chapters on the history of housing in the U.S. and on other general topics are excellent. The book’s biggest weakness is its following of one such development from start to finish, because the example does not appear to be very typical. Therefore, the details are of less interest than they might be. Also, it means that too much of the book consists of the sketching of individuals involved in this development, which doesn’t interest me much in this kind of book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not too sure if everyone would find this book as interesting as I did...looks at the development of American suburbs, focusing on a new project just outside of Philidelphia. A bit of history, a bit of architecture, a bit of property development...

[Matt Botkin · Rating 1 out of 5]

damn witold ! writing a book explaining and defending the american suburban development practice in 2007 is really bad luck but this book would’ve sucked anyway. if anything that kept me interested- the early signs of downturn are all mentioned and waved off, very haunting and ominous, like a memoir of guy swept away by a tsunami “the tide is way low, that’s crazy. anway!”

his defense of both the aesthetic and lifestyle of the american suburb is actually pretty convincing though. urbanity is preference not a virtue and living in a suburb and driving everywhere is kind of nice if you happen to be a married professional 30-60 year old person with kids.

But ! we literally cannot keep living like this! the planet is burning witold! even if all the cars are electric we still have to build too many of them! not to mention the extinction crisis! this book aged like the nazi at the end of raiders of the lost arc. (though I suspect lots of people knew then also! I was 12 so I can’t say for sure)

I adore witold’s olmsted bio and some of his other stuff. great for the architecture-curious! but his politics are shitty it seems. I shouldn’t have expected a grand interrogation of homeownership as the principal method of wealth creation in america and how this has totally fucked large percentages of our population and debatably our society as a whole but his explanation for why we live the way we do is a total joke. Why do we live like this ? “Culture” Why is that our culture? “History” Great! No further questions lmao. At one point he says family homes are the preference throughout all human history, ancient rome, ancient china and also the us now. Where are these homes located tho ? What in these cultures is considered family ? Come on man. Get it together. A dash of historical-materialism and some acknowledgment of those excluded would’ve gone a long way towards not making this book laughable in 2021.

[Ed Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy books that are well written can teach and tell a story. The Last Harvest does this well - and is, while not a spellbinding page-turner, well written and enjoyable to read. The book takes you through developing a small planned development in Chester County, PA - and introduces the risks, rewards, and often overwhelming processes associated with developing residential property. As a former city planning commissioner in a small Washington State city at the same time period that the book covers, I found the perspective from the developer's side very interesting, and the book often resonated with my own experiences. A good read for the prospective land baron or developer - or anyone interested in land use. You will get some flavor and appreciation of the inherent risks and rewards—a good read.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a planner, I found this book an all too realistic overview of the neighborhood development, and I wish I read this when I was studying for the American Institute of Certified Planners exam.

I can certainly understand how some may find the book dull. The dialogue is a bit dry, and it requires a lot of land development background knowledge to understand. I also wish the author had waited until the neighborhood was more complete before publication to better describe it, but I still very much enjoyed.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable and quite interesting. By focusing on one development the author gives an in-depth look at what it takes to build a development. But, on the other hand, the in-depth look feels very one-sided. Interesting that the book focuses on the side of architecture that most architects would never admit being interested in or want to get involved with, despite being the majority of what gets built in the US.

[Rene Caballero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its the story about how a father let his son became interested in the family business, he gave him an interesting and challenging project. Not the best financial-wise decision but the best legacy-wise one. It is great how the author explains every detail of the process of developing a neighborhood.

[Irina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising, lovely and eye-opening. Who would have thought a book about a Pennsylvania development would have so much to say about architecture and history?

[Saul Bronstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story about Real Estate Development, showing how complicated and difficult the process can be to go from plots of dirt to sold homes

[Jenny]

I was told to read this for my Real Estate Development program...I'm sure it's good but 6 years later I still havent read past the first chapter.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Peter Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into the world of single family housing development.

[Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

History of housing development by following the development of a neotraditional subdivision in the exburbs in Chester County PA between Philadelphia and Wilmington. It follows the steps over three years to get from idea to the first houses built in a new subdivision. In the process, it gives a history of land speculation and suburban development. It does spend a lot of effort on neotraditional subdivisions. The first example is Seaside, a Florida vacation division developed by a husband and wife team, Duany-Zyberk. It also covers the first “Garden” suburbs along train lines in the early 1900s including Mariemont near Cincinnati. Then the Levittowns after world war II. While these suburbs were ridiculed by urban intellectuals, they were very popular blue-collar developments. The development of suburbs after WWII had two avenues – International (lead by Frenchman Le Corbusier) which was urban based. The second was Frank Loyd Wright with Broadacre City which is more along the USA development.

The process of development was very interesting. The site was rural and could have been developed as 1 acres homesites. But had to get a variance for more density, but leaving half the land open. This took a consultant to work with the township to make a new neotraditional optional zoning ordnances. Then it required a year of meetings to get the first approval for the subdivision. Only when the zoning and subdivision plan is approved, does the developer buy the land (he had two one year options on the land purchase). It was interesting how the developer assessed the country – mix of rich Horse folks; young, poor families moving further out for a house; and farmers. Sounds like Warren County. Most zoning boards in these areas are really just trying to stop all growth and try to delay and obstruct all new subdivisions. This is because new subdivisions add families and kids which require more roads and services which increase taxes. They are fine with commercial development – just not residential. The other interesting point is the West and South are typically pro-growth and have regional zoning which the east has very small municipalities which are very against growth. The cost of the same house from a national builder ranges from $200 in the south to $600 in Maryland and New England. The price of a house is really dependant on the amount of permitted land for construction. The most creative process – the actual layout and high level design of the subdivision is done by the planner, who gets the least fees (probably $20K). The developer, lawyers, engineers, and consultants can add $10-$20K to each homesite in the development of the land.

Last Harvest refers to the land owner/farmer who harvests his last season before the bulldozers come in to clear the land for development.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

In his book Last Harvest, Witold Rybczynski recounts how New Daleville, a new residential subdivision located on a former cornfield in Chester County, Pennsylvania, came to be. Rybczynski tells the story of New Daleville from the early planning stages through construction and the challenges associated with selling the new homes. What sets New Daleville apart from many newer subdivisions is that it is fashioned according to the tenets of traditional neighborhood development (TND). TND is a term coined by Duany and Plater-Zyberk, the planners of Seaside, Florida, to describe a village-like community with narrow streets, small lots, classically inspired architecture, and open community spaces. Not content to just record a chain of events, Rybczynski places this new development into a historical and cultural context. He discusses the history of Chester County and early Pennsylvanian attempts at real estate, drawing parallels between the past and present. He also examines why Americans are drawn to certain types of communities and home designs and looks at some contemporary developments similar to New Daleville.

Rybczynski succeeds in successfully chronicling the New Daleville development. He painstakingly explains the entire process from design to construction and all of the meetings, issues, and hurdles in between. Rybczynski also provides the reader with an interesting history of suburbs in America and how the neotraditional development energized the architectural and design world. One of the shortcomings of the book, in my opinion, is that Rybczynski tends to make sweeping overgeneralizations and works too hard to try to convince his audience that the layout of a traditional neighborhood development will foster community. A lemonade stand reference seems contrived. His explanation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of a new community without a downtown or border, subsisting as part of a larger urban area, is fascinating, but to call Wright a “spiritual godfather” of New Daleville is a touch dramatic. The residents of New Daleville are mostly affluent and have enjoyed some success in their lives, permitting them to purchase a home where they like. If Rybczynski is implying that TND is the antidote to bland suburbs, the implication does not work because most people can only afford the bland suburbs and not New Daleville or its counterparts.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The modest single-family house is the glory of the suburban tradition."
"It offers its inhabitants a comprehensible image of independence and privacy while also accepting the responsibility of community."- Rober A.M. Stern

Andres Duany is harshly critical of conventional suburban planning, "The classic suburb is less a community than an agglomeration of houses, shops, and offices connected to one another by cars, not by the fabric of life."

But the developers of New Daleville have a dream: shared public spaces,walking paths, parks, all reminding people they are not only living in private homes but they are also members of a community. Instead of building ugly landscaped berms around ugly developments, people friendly communities should be well planned attractive and useful. They demonstrate how Rothenburg and other old European towns which are incredibly quaint, have the delicate relationship that exists between the large and small spaces.

If you have any interest in suburban development, this is a well written, easy to understand book. Rybczynski tells of New Daleville a plan of developers in Pennsylvania who hope to turn a cornfield into a neotraditional neighborhood.

The problem is that everyone hate developers; "Conservationists decry the loss of agricultural land; proponents of mass transit don't like spending more money on highway construction; environmentalists oppose continued dependence on fossil fuel, sociologist contend that low density suburbs undermine community..."

Getting New Daleville built takes a lot of expertise, compromise, patience, money. ambition, and optimism about the future.

Rybczynski has done a lot of research and has crunched a lot of numbers to tell the whole story with all the facts and makes it interesting.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The incredible thing about Witold Rybczynski's Last Harvest:How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-First Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway is that it's not boring. Most of the action takes place in county planning meetings, where board members and property developers disagree on points of the proposed development plan— solutions to the items in question are submitted and will be discussed at subsequent meetings; Mr. Rybczynski deserves a medal for keeping it interesting. He follows the developers as they change a farm field into a traditional neighborhood-style real estate development with sidewalks, public spaces, parks, and alleys, which is why Mr. Rybczynski chose to follow New Daleville. He's a fan of garden suburbs. Most of the exurban homes in the county are situated on acre or half-acre lots and the developer petitions the county board for rezoning: Drama?

The development project trundles along, narrated by frequent conversation with various men and women who are reticent about the proposed sewage treatment system, for example. Mr. Rybczynski goes into the history of housing development in America and the preference for single-family homes worldwide, but he can't go too far because he already wrote the definitive history of domestic architecture in 1986. I really do recommend this book, although either Home or A Clearing in the Distance, that Frederick Law Olmsted book, might be better first picks from Witold's oeuvre.

http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was disapointing after the other Rybczynski book I've read, A Clearing in the Distance. That book took the unusual approach of imagining and reconstructing episodes in Frederick Law Olmstead's life, but was most interesting for how Olmstead thought about the social relevance of his work and really changed the way Americans think about and use public spaces. Last Harvest looked like it might aspire to the same levels (Why We Live in Houses Anyway) but in the end it's just a very thourough exploration of a marketing strategy. New Urbanism might have more broad social implications, but they are not evident in this book and it doesn't live up to the promise of the title. Yes, Rybczynski does mention how early American development happened, and spends a few pages on "why we live in houses" but most of the book follows the trials of a few developers as they try and get approval for their new subdivision and then get it built. The big question I had was - so what? This New Urbanist development is in the end hardly different from the typical exurban, mega-developer neighborhood, except there is a gazebo and the houses are closer together.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This John McPhee-like (McPhee-esque?) account of a the development of a piece of farmland in Pennsylvania reads nicely -- not quite a thriller, but with plenty of good narrative energy. And it tells the reader a lot -- how developments happen, why houses look like they do, and how some communities are trying to move away from the typical subdivision, often with uninspired results.

Last Harvest is an essential first read for anyone concerned about overdevelopment in their own community. My sense is that most of those leading the charge against development seem to spit out the word "developer" like a epithet, assuming developers are embodiment of all evil. But Last Harvest dispels that notion -- there are many devils in the process (society being one of them), and knowing how the process actually works from beginning to end will make anyone more effective in influencing the results.

Complaints? I'd love to have seen more photos of the end result -- the few used as section openers just make me want to see more.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rybczynski's talent is telling a story about architecture, or in this case urban planning and real estate development, and mixing with that story aspects of history and policy. This is a great book for understanding the process of building a particular planned community, from permitting to constructing and selling houses. But I found errors and oversimplifications in Rybczynski's descriptions of certain viewpoints. For example, he blurs the lines between smart growth, new urbanism, and traditional neighborhood development. The meanings of these terms are similar but not interchangeable. Moreover, he oversimplifies arguments for and against these types of developments, leading the reader to overgeneralize based on the experience of one development. I would have liked discussion about how this development fared relative to similar developments located in or near a central city, and how it could have been better with a mixture of uses. New Daleville is exclusively residential. Ultimately, this book is good for telling the story of one, particular development.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quarter way through the book, I decided to visit a local neotraditional development in Ashburn, VA. The houses were charming (albiet with a heavy dose of artificiality - the faux brick fronts, the nostalgic styles in modern, cheap materials). The neighborhood was pretty quiet: one person walking a dog, a whiff of barbeque - not quiet the thriving community atmosphere neotraditional developers make it out to be. It was certainly an improvement over the mcmansion and "contemporary" subdivisions, but the neighborhood was strangely out of context, plopped in the middle of a formerly rural area, much like the development in Rybczynski's book. Rybczynski's account of New Daleville is a fascinating window into how housing developments are conceptualized and built in the US and all the actors involved but as other reviewers have mentioned, there's a curious lack of political and ethical analysis. Neotraditionalism falls far short of ideas we'll need to live well in the future, a thought that Rybczyniski alludes to but doesn't address head on.

[Danica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a very long time to read it mostly due to personal circumstances, but every time I picked it up I was able to plow through huge pieces of the book. It kept my interest and walked a neutral line between criticism and complement in the very contentious subject of subdivision development.

A few caveats: 1) in order to enjoy this book you probably should have some serious interest in residential development, urban planning, subdivisions, etc. 2) You should also be relatively familiar with the process of subdividing and constructing houses. If you are not interested or familiar you will likely not enjoy the extensive coverage of the county planning commission meetings or the description of the drip-line sewage field, etc.

The book ended just as the financial crisis was taking off so I'd love to know what happened to the development, the residents, the builders, etc. Also, one little criticism, this book would be helped drastically by illustrations or drawings so you could easily orient yourself to the development and how it was progressing.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and easy to read book about residential land development, from entitlement to home ownership. Written by an architect with experience in the land development process, the book provides an educated perspective on American's housing preferences and how the housing market works to meet our perceived housing demands. The most interesting aspect of this book is it follows one specific residential development project in suburban Philly and the author details the role and viewpoint of most everyone who touches this project, from the developer, town planner, home builder and eventual home owner. I enjoyed this book and think it is approachable for those who may have no professional interest in the subject.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected from the subtitle that this book would be about the driving forces behind suburban sprawl, and at least a little melancholy about the state of development in America today (well, that's the book I wanted to read, anyway). But it turned out to be more "An inside look at suburban sprawl from a developer's perspective" or something like that. Basically it just followed the process of turning a specific field in Pennsylvania ("the Wrigley tract") into a housing development ("New Daleville," which is actually the real name of a specific development, not the subdivisional equivalent of "John Doe" as I had assumed when I checked the book out from the library), pretty much rooting for the developer the whole way.
Anyway, it was still pretty interesting.