If you are at all interested in town planning, design, architecture, the built environment etc, these are worth a read. I’ll be happy to extend the list if people have an interesting read to add.
Full list coming soon.
But to start the ball rolling a couple of my favourite books.
City Making in Paradise. Nine decisions that saved Vancouver
By Michael Harcourt, Sean Rossiter, Ken Cameron, Kenneth Duncan Cameron
Published by Douglas & McIntyre
Aug 2007
ISBN-10: 1553652576This critical work explores the issues and citizen action that made Vancouver one of the world’s most livable cities—an international urban poster child—and challenges policy-makers and the public to reinvigorate the debate for the next generation of successful sustainable city building.
Time and again, Vancouver is recognized internationally as one of the best places to live. It achieved that reputation by breaking rules and forging its own brand of North American urbanism. This compelling book details the nine most important decisions made in the Greater Vancouver region since the 1940s. Authors Mike Harcourt and Ken Cameron, themselves key players in several of these developments, reveal the political machinations, the ideological struggles and the personal commitment that lay behind each one. By tracing today’s successes back to their roots, they illustrate their central theme; that cities are the result of the daily choices we make as leaders, activists and citizens.
About the Authors
Mike Harcourt is a former premier of British Columbia (1991–96), mayor of Vancouver (1980–86) and city alderman (1972–80.) He is chair of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee for Cities and Communities.Ken Cameron has held senior planning and management positions with the City of New Westminster and the Greater Vancouver Regional District since the late 1970s. He is CEO of the British Columbia Homeowner Protection Office.
Sean Rossiter wrote an award-winning column about civic affairs for Vancouver magazine for sixteen years. Recipient of three City of Vancouver Heritage Awards, he is also the author of nineteen books.
The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design
By John Punter, Punter, John Vincent, 1945-
Published by UBC Press, 2003
ISBN 077480971X, 9780774809719
447 pagesThis book examines the development of Vancouver’s unique approach to zoning, planning, and urban design from its inception in the early 1970s to its maturity in the management of urban change at the beginning of the twenty-first century. By the late 1990s, Vancouver had established a reputation in North America for its planning achievement, especially for its creation of a participative, responsive, and design-led approach to urban regeneration and redevelopment. This system has other important features: an innovative approach to megaproject planning, a system of cost and amenity levies on major schemes, a participative CityPlan process to underpin active neighbourhood planning, and a sophisticated panoply of design guidelines. These systems, processes, and their achievements place Vancouver at the forefront of international planning practice.
Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination
By Lance Berelowitz
Published by Douglas & McIntyre, Limited, 2005
ISBN 1553651707, 9781553651703Vancouver, located at the edge of a continent and the edge of national consciousness, has become the model for post-industrial urbanism. Does it deserve the attention? This provocative new book explores the links between the city’s seductive natural setting, turbulent political history, planning and design culture, and the local and global forces that are reshaping Vancouver’s urban environment at a ferocious pace. Filled with historical and contemporary photographs and maps, “Dream City offers compelling insight into how buildings, public spaces, extraordinary landscapes, and civic values have merged to form a uniquely 21st-century city.
What if? Dunedin... 
Stadia: A Design and Development Guide
By Geraint John, Rod Sheard
Edition: 3, illustrated
Published by Architectural Press, 2000
ISBN 0750645342, 9780750645348
267 pages
This completely updated third edition is an essential design guide for those responsible for designing and providing new stadia and also making major alterations to existing buildings. Stadia are one of the most exciting building types; designed well, they can enhance and provide a comfortable venue for great occasions. One new chapter for this edition – ‘Stadia and Tourism’ looks at this modern, very interesting aspect of stadia. This authoritative and comprehensive guide to stadia design will be invaluable to those responsible for the provision of new stadia or refurbishment. Both authors have been involved in the design of stadia, arenas and grandstands for many years and this book reflects their wealth of experience and expertise.
Geraint John RIBA Dip Arch (UCL) CISRM MILAM FRSA
Professor of Architecture and Sports Building Design, University of Luton, Director of Programme of Sports and Leisure Buildings of International Union of Architects, Former Chief Architect, Technical Unit for Sport, Sports Council.
Rod Sheard
Senior Vice President, The HOK + LOBB Sport, Leisure and Entertainment Architects.
You can preview this book at:
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=o4o_IMJ8D-kC
Looking back at this site…
Paul listed the above text along with others at Books of interest (April 2, 2007…12:24 am).
Best seat in the house (April 2, 2007…12:52 am) highlights an ABC Radio National Australia broadcast in 2006 – an interview with several leading sports stadia designers including Rod Sheard, Senior Principal Architect at HOK Sport, and Paul Henry, Senior Prinicipal Architect at HOK Sport.
all the worlds a stage… (April 2, 2007…11:57 pm) refers to Ronald Bishop’s ‘If You Build It, We Won’t Leave: Turner’s social drama in newspaper coverage of stadium construction controversies’, in Journalism Studies, Volume 2, Number 3, 2001, pp 373–392.
Good research, Paul. Know there’s more.
Stadia: A Design and Development Guide
By Geraint John, Rod Sheard
Edition: 3, illustrated
Published by Architectural Press, 2000
ISBN 0750645342, 9780750645348
267 pages
This completely updated third edition is an essential design guide for those responsible for designing and providing new stadia and also making major alterations to existing buildings. Stadia are one of the most exciting building types; designed well, they can enhance and provide a comfortable venue for great occasions. One new chapter for this edition – ‘Stadia and Tourism’ looks at this modern, very interesting aspect of stadia. This authoritative and comprehensive guide to stadia design will be invaluable to those responsible for the provision of new stadia or refurbishment. Both authors have been involved in the design of stadia, arenas and grandstands for many years and this book reflects their wealth of experience and expertise.
Geraint John RIBA Dip Arch (UCL) CISRM MILAM FRSA
Professor of Architecture and Sports Building Design, University of Luton, Director of Programme of Sports and Leisure Buildings of International Union of Architects, Former Chief Architect, Technical Unit for Sport, Sports Council.
Rod Sheard
Senior Vice President, The HOK + LOBB Sport, Leisure and Entertainment Architects.
You can preview this book at:
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=o4o_IMJ8D-kC
Elizabeth there are so many more, I have over 80 journal articles, one of the advantages of having online journal access at the Uni.
I actually have
Stadia: A Design and Development Guide
By Geraint John, Rod Sheard 4th Edition
The 4th Edition is so much better than the first. Rod has an incredible body of work in this field, and if our development wasn’t so bloody contentious he would have been a brilliant person to have bought out to Dunedin to have given some public talks etc.
As for the Journal Articles, I have a the bibliography list in Endnote I could just post as a matter of interest. It may surprise some that not all of the articles aren’t pro stadium, and there are many contentious such developments globally.
Or, you could not give away your entire list, that was all your search time going into that, online or not…instead, how about listing a few you think would be interesting or provocative.
Hate seeing postgrad bibliographies put on a plate for other lazy researchers to grab without having to do any work themselves. It’s called being fair but frugal. If they want the whole list they have to negotiate with you!
Wondered why your earlier post contents hadn’t flowed into ‘Worth reading’, probably due to time and getting posts going on your then new site.
Forgot to add, maybe when the darn Otago stadium is completed they’ll have an excuse to fly HOK’s Rod Sheard out here for meet and greet, and an illustrated open lecture and workshop. The least CST and Forsyth Barr could do…why don’t you suggest it. NZIA Southern, Southern Urban Design Forum and local chapter of IPENZ would love it. Put an ‘et al’ on this. We should discuss.
****
Here is best preview for the fourth edition of Stadia: A Design and Development Guide.
In this completely updated and redesigned edition of the essential and long-established Stadia, the authors offer their unrivalled expertise to all professionals who commission, plan, design, and manage high-quality sports venues. This fourth edition features over twenty case studies of recent projects in Europe, America, Australia, China and Japan, and the technical sections contain substantial new information on master planning and designing for the disabled. In addition to a wide array of international information sources, the authors were able to draw on the experience of the design firm that delivered the 1999 Cardiff Millennium stadium, the 2000 Sydney Olympic stadium, the 2002 Reliant stadium in Houston, the 2005 Nanjing Sports Park, the new grandstand for Ascot Racecourse, and the recently completed Wembley stadium. * Written by the internationally recognized global leaders in sport architecture, HOK. * Includes the very latest projects in a wealth of international case studies * Covers all technical aspects on designing new stadia as well as altering existing buildings
More details
Stadia: A Design and Development Guide
By Geraint John, Rod Sheard, Ben Vickery
Edition: 4, illustrated, revised
Published by Architectural Press, 2007
ISBN 075066844X, 9780750668446
306 pages
The authors:
Geraint John RIBA Dip Arch (UCL) CISRM MILAM FRSA
Professor of Architecture and Sports Building Design, University of Luton, Director of Programme of Sports and Leisure Buildings of International Union of Architects, Former Chief Architect, Technical Unit for Sport, Sports Council.
Rod Sheard is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world on many aspects of stadia and large spectator venue design, the place they take in our lives and where the future of these spectacular buildings is heading. He was the creator of the concept of Stadia Generations which is now the established categorisation of stadia through recent history. In 2002 The University of Luton conferred on Rod the distinction of an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of his outstanding contribution to architecture, in particular, in the field of sport architecture.
Rod has a great enthusiasm for the future of sport architecture with a vision for the 21st century which will herald a new breed of facilities more user-friendly, better serviced and more exciting than any which have been built before. He loves clear articulate design and his award winning work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and chosen by the Design Council for their exhibition of work by ‘young’ architects. The ‘Times’ in London described Reebok Stadium, his team’s design for Bolton Wanderers Football Club as a ‘triumph of high tech architecture’. In 1995 the Alfred McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield won the RIBA ‘Building of the Year Award’, the first time this prestigious award has been given to a stadium.
Calling on his extensive project experience, Rod has authored and co-authored a number of books, including Stadia: A Design and Development Guide, Sports Architecture, and The Stadium: Architecture for the New Global Culture.
Ben Vickery spent his early career in Singapore and London, before joining HOK Sport in 1993, where he is now a Senior Principal based in London. Ben has a broad range of technical and managerial experience, as well as detailed sports design knowledge. He was recently part of the committee writing a technical recommendation document on stadium concourses.
For 2 years from 1996, Ben worked on ANZ Stadium, the venue for the Olympic Games in Sydney in the year 2000. This technically innovative design won a series of major international architectural awards, including the IOC / IAKS Gold Medal in 2003.
Since 1998 Ben has been Project Director in charge of the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium, guiding it through from initial briefing to construction on site. The subject of much political and media attention, this stadium will be a striking building incorporating many new design solutions.
Hey
I was wondering whether you can give me a list of some good books/journal articles etc. for a research report on urban planning/redevelopment relating to stadiums. Online or available at the University of Otago libraries would be most useful.
Hope you can help.
Cheers
Aaron – no free rides to research and sources here, sadly. If you want directions ask your course advisors, talk to the librarians, or simply use the online library indexes. Good luck.
Is anyone writing a book on how the stadium was birthed in Dunedin? It would be an extraordinary topic to try and define but one which has surely altered the landscape of Dunedin in so many ways. I suspect it would require two publishings though to address the strong feelings on both sides of the disagreement. Even the persons or entities providing funding would add to the debate.
That last sentence in particular is grossly naive.
The trouble is, Anonymous, one side has been trying to unearth information about the birthing and development of the stadium while the other has tried to cover up information from reaching the public. No prizes for guessing which side the latter is on. Therefore, anything that came out from them that claimed the stadium as the best thing built since the Pyramids would be Malcolm-speak.
Maybe. Could have been worse. But it does seem like a fair topic. How about removing these posts and creating a discussion about writing a book on the new stadium? It would be a difficult book to write but an interesting read.
Of course, it almost certainly merits two books written by separate authors. Two sides of the coin. It would probably represent a similar conflict between readers as it has done in our community.
Also the story hasn’t finished yet despite the stadium’s physical completion. So it would probably be premature to write about it now. More information to unearth.
Much to the chagrin of the stadium proponents.
I’d prefer court action, then people can troll over the protagonists to their hearts’ desire :)
And it’s not a situation that is simply ‘polar opposite’, the shady connections are webbed.
Elizabeth: I can’t believe that you believe ‘court action’ would resolve anything. The only thing certain would be an escalation of the disgruntled and a bunch of very fat lawyers dining out huge. As for writing a book, as Peter says the journey ain’t finished yet, so any story could only be chapter one.
Calvin, evidence is a useful tool.
Preparatory notes could be gathered. Even that will take a while. I suspect there may already be people with well organised collections of facts, spin, names and a few kindly leaked gems they haven’t re-leaked yet to protect the innocent.
I have floated the idea before that we use modern technology to have a book written in a collaborative way. Yes, many people have many vital threads to this story and they are not in one place.
However, it is equally true that many of the vital facts are being actively hidden. To expose these facts will take the combination of these people who don’t want the facts to be exposed to be forced to cough up the truth, and a dedicated, funded researcher.