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Clarence S. Stein (1882–1975) was an architect, housing visionary, regionalist, policymaker, and colleague of some of the most influential public figures of the early to mid-twentieth century, including Lewis Mumford and Benton MacKaye. Kristin E. Larsen's biography of Stein comprehensively examines his built and unbuilt projects and his intellectual legacy as a proponent of the "garden city" for a modern age. This examination of Stein’s life and legacy focuses on four critical themes: his collaborative ethic in envisioning policy, design, and development solutions; promotion and implementation of "investment housing;" his revolutionary approach to community design, as epitomized in the Radburn Idea; and his advocacy of communitarian regionalism. His cutting-edge projects such as Sunnyside Gardens in New York City; Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles; and Radburn, New Jersey, his "town for the motor age," continue to inspire community designers and planners in the United States and around the world.Stein was among the first architects to integrate new design solutions and support facilities into large-scale projects intended primarily to house working-class people, and he was a cofounder of the Regional Planning Association of America. As a planner, designer, and, at times, financier of new housing developments, Stein wrestled with the challenges of creating what today we would term "livable," "walkable," and "green" communities during the ascendency of the automobile. He managed these challenges by partnering private capital with government funding, as well as by collaborating with colleagues in planning, architecture, real estate, and politics.
Kristin E. Larsen is Associate Professor and Director, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Florida.
"Community Architect not only offers a wealth of new information and insights on Clarence S. Stein, one of the seminal planners of the twentieth century, but also affords a revealing examination of the circle of which he was an essential part and which was so important in fostering his intellectual growth. Larsen's book makes a substantial contribution to urban history and is likely to be a key reference for years to come."
Bruce Stephenson, author of John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner:
"Clarence S. Stein is a definitive figure in American urban reform, and Kristen E. Larsen has provided the thoughtful, systematic assessment that his career deserves. This carefully researched book unveils how ideals and pragmatism both meshed and failed. Most important, scholars and practitioners now have a template to gauge the past and guide plans for procuring equity and sustainability."
Howard Gillette, Jr., Rutgers University–Camden, author of Civitas by Design:
"Among the main figures who made up the Regional Planning Association of America, Clarence S. Stein remains one of the most central and yet least well documented members of this historically important group of critical thinkers. Kristin E. Larsen mines Stein's extensive papers to bring his life’s work to light by placing him in the larger context of a key period in American planning history."
Robert Freestone, author of Urban Nation:
"This meticulously researched biography of Clarence S. Stein delivers not only a long-overdue critical historical appreciation of the room-to-region community vision of a remarkable practical theorist but also an uplifting restatement of its relevance to the ongoing quest for sustainable human-centered urban places."
Herbert Reynolds, Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance, www.SunnysideGardens.us:
"Many who come to appreciate Clarence S. Stein from living in one of his garden neighborhoods are drawn to learn more about his humane legacy as our architect of housing amid parklands. Kristin E. Larsen enriches our knowledge of Stein's generous achievements as advocate, organizer, and designer with her extensively researched and academically wide-ranging assessment of his dedicated career."
David J. Vater, architect and preservationist:
"At last a comprehensive biography of Clarence S. Stein that is unafraid to recount the many setbacks among the successes. Kristen E. Larsen's book gives stunning insights into the exceptional career of one of America's most pivotal and creative community planners. Community Architect presents a dense web of connections and fascinating new details on Stein’s lifelong search to identify and implement those intangible qualities that give residents 'a finer and more abundant community life.’"
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