The Lexicon of the New Urbanism

Duany Plater Zyberk & Company, Miami, 1999. Plastic cover, 74 pp. (11" x 17"), $99. The Lexicon can only be ordered direct: 305-644-1021. Most active new urbanists have seen bits and pieces of The Lexicon of the New Urbanism. Anyone who has attended an Andres Duany presentation in recent years, for example, has seen some of the diagrams. In June of 1997, Duany first presented photocopies of this work in progress at the Congress for the New Urbanism in Toronto. At the time, Duany called the work The Technique of Town Planning: The Operating System of the New Urbanism, and announced that it would be completed within a year and available free of charge over the Internet. Two and a half years have gone by, and The Lexicon of the New Urbanism, as it now is called, is still not complete, although it has been extensively revised. For the first time, it is widely available to students and practitioners of the New Urbanism in a hard copy draft format. While not free, The Lexicon is a bargain at $99. What is The Lexicon? It is equal parts book, dictionary, how-to manual, and magnum opus. It is the planning philosophy of Andres Duany, the firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, and Duany’s many colleagues systematically diagramed and boiled down to simple language. No town plans, photographs, or renderings are provided. Everything is reduced to concise prose and diagrams. However, the density of information is such that only true New Urbanism students and aficionados will ever read the work cover to cover or take the time to fully understand it. The Lexicon is urbanism made systematic. Every element is defined and categorized. Every concept is named and diagramed. Some people will find this irritating, but the New Urbanism is nothing if not a rational system of creating urban places. It is based on the idea that the streets, buildings, and public places can be measured and coded to produce specific outcomes – namely human-scale, walkable communities. Those who complain that the New Urbanism relies too heavily on traditional architecture should note that The Lexicon does not address architectural style at all. The section on buildings describes the types of structures that fit into a neighborhood, their characteristics, platting, and relationships to block, street, and property lines. But any style of building, from classical to modern, could be designed in harmony with these principles. Every profession requires an established common language, not only to gain standing, but to communicate effectively, according to Duany. The Lexicon of the New Urbanism is an attempt by Duany and his associates to standardize that language for new urbanists. The Lexicon is not a commercially successful work – at least not yet – but it’s likely to be highly influential in the field. Duany estimates that production expenses have amounted to nearly $200,000, not counting work by the authors. Duany had plenty of help. He lists as contributors the staff of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (which holds the copyright), Stefanos Polyzoides (cochair with Duany of the Congress for the New Urbanism nomenclature task force), traffic experts Walter Kulash and Rick Chellman, transit expert Bill Lieberman, and retail expert Robert Gibbs. Other contributors were Todd Zimmerman and Laurie Volk on social issues, Douglas Duany and Stephanie Bothwell on landscape, Paul Murrain, David Sargeant, Thomas Comitta, and Gary Greenan on general issues, and Phillip Reynold, Gianni Longo, and Peter Hetzel as editors.