Townscape
Publications
To stimulate a
broader interest in place meaning and place making, The Townscape Institute
fosters the development of educational publications: books and posters,
exhibitions and videos that illustrate how buildings, spaces, and objects
can reinforce identification with place. Publications have always been
integral to The Townscape Institute's advocacy role. Below is a list
of publications produced by The Townscape Institute, including publication
details and a brief description of each work.
Note: For ordering
information, see publisher details below. Used copies of out-of-print
Townscape publications are often available through booksellers online,
such as www.abebooks.com.
NEW: The Art of
Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design by Ronald Lee Fleming, Merrell Publishers, spring 2007.
Building on the place-making strategies of earlier Place Makers
books (see below), this new work contains case studies of public art
and urban design projects that bolster a sense of place. It follows
contemporary trends in public art, such as highway projects, mural town
revitalization programs, gateways, and street furniture, along with
careful analysis of policy and administrative issues. Hundreds of color
plates illustrate the rich variety of place making endeavors around
the US. This book is available through your favorite local bookstore, or online.
More information at Merrell Publishers

Saving Face:
How Corporate Franchise Design Can Respect Community
Identity shows how to encourage more compatible
design of service station and fast-food in American cities and countryside.
For more information on corporate visual responsibility, click here.
American Planning Association, 1994, expanded 2nd edition 2002. APA PAS 503/504.
Paperback (includes over 100 full color illustrations) $40.00
Order online at the APA
website
Place Makers:
Creating Public Art That Tells You Where You Are
was co-authored by Ronald Lee Fleming and Renata von Tscharner. Place
makers are works of public art and design that capture or reinforce
the unique character of a site or space. The book presents case studies
from across the United States - sculptures, murals, fountains, pavement
inserts, and street furniture. In the often bleak urban landscape of
concrete slabs and mirrored glass, in anonymous plazas, malls, and squares,
place makers provide a human scale, restore a much needed sense of connection,
and sometimes add a touch of humor.
Hardcover, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987, 2nd edition $29.95; Paperback, 2nd edition, $14.95, out of print; (1st ed, Hastings House, 1981,
out of print). ISBN: 0-15-172013-2 (paperback)

Facade Stories:
Changing Faces of Main Street Storefronts and How to Care
for Them by Ronald Lee Fleming depicts the building fronts that
line the business districts of American towns and records what happened
to them over time. "Before and after" photographs show facades
that have been preserved, restored, adapted, left as free-standing sculptures,
reduced to fragments, or recalled as wall murals. The appendix, written
with Nore V.Winter, illustrates how facades should be analyzed and maintained.
Hastings House, 1982 , paperback $13.50 (out of print). ISBN: 0-8038-2398-3
On Common
Ground: Caring for Shared Land from Town Common to Urban Park
by Ronald Lee Fleming and Lauri A. Halderman, is a practical book that
examines the history of New England's common grazing lands as a basis
for defining guidelines for their protection and enhancement. On Common
Ground explores the original notion of a shared "proprietorship"
- the guiding principle of the early village greens - in order to demonstrate
how corporations, foundations, and community groups from New York to
California can utilize this traditional concept for the design and management
of new shared spaces.
Harvard Common
Press, 1982 , hardcover $25.00 (out of print, available in hardcover
and paperback for order from The Townscape Institute, contact for more
information); paperback $12.95. ISBN: 0-916782-24-7
New Providence: A Changing Cityscape is a full-color picture
book documenting the physical evolution of a typical small American
city between 1910 and 1987.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987, hardcover $10.95 Preservation Press,
1992 Paperback $9.95. ISBN: 0-15-200540-4. For ordering information,
contact Scott Foresman Publishers, 800-552-2259, fax 800-841-8939, www.scottforesman.com
New Providence: Poster Series
Seven 12" x 33" full-color posters and an accompanying Viewers
Guide depicting the evolution of New Providence, an imaginary city,
from 1875-1990. A useful educational tool, the series looks at changes
in architectural, economic, and social trends and how they have shaped
the character of American cities.
Dale Seymour Publications, 1993, $36.95.
For ordering information, contact Scott Foresman Publishers, 800-552-2259,
fax 800-841-8939, www.scottforesman.com
Recent articles:
"Urban Planning & Public Art in Eugene, Oregon", excerpted from The
Art of Place Making. Public Art Review, Spring 2005.
"Public Art for the Public: A History of Federal Funding", excerpted from The
Art of Place Making. The Public Interest, Spring 2005.
"Reinventing an old idea", Street Furniture chapter excerpted from The
Art of Place Making. Landscape Architecture Magazine, July 2004.
"Design Review
Comes to My Garden," Planning Magazine, June 2004.
"Place Meaning
Interpreted: Revisiting the past to reveal future choice", excerpted from The
Art of Place Making, UC
Berkeley and Pratt Institute's Places: A Forum of Environmental Design, Fall 2003, issue
16.1.
Three Gateway Case
Studies, in Scenic Solutions, a CD-ROM published by Scenic America,
September 2003.