| Title: | Building Commons and Community |
| Author: | Karl Linn |
| ISBN-13: | 978-0-9766054-7-8 |
| Publisher: | New Village Press |
| Distributor: | Consortium |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Trim: | 10" x 8.5" |
| Illus: | 379 color photographs |
| Binding: | Original Trade Hardcover |
| Pub. Date: | January 2008 |
| Category: | Cultural Studies/Urban Planning |
| Price: | $29.95 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2007
Contact: Karen Stewart
510 420-1361;
www.newvillagepress.net
Citizens Revitalize their Neighborhoods by Creating Shared Spaces
Building Commons and Community documents 45 years of the late Karl Linn’s legacy creating neighborhood spaces for communities and by communities. In this richly illustrated landscape-format hardcover book, Linn presents his philosophies and practical wisdom to help people use the resources they find in their own surroundings to create welcoming shared spaces. Colorful photo-essay case studies of projects that cross boundaries between professional design and neighborhood activism provide inspiration and guidance for citizens and professionals who wish to collaborate to strengthen communities. Projects include community gardens, playgrounds, parks and other gathering places built on neglected property by the people who use them.
Landscape architect and child psychologist Karl Linn (1923-2005) was a beloved, down-to-earth, visionary leader of grassroots community building, who brought life to economically disenfranchised neighborhoods in cities from Boston to Berkeley. His book documents the creativity and ingenuity of working-class citizens, students and volunteer professionals who transformed abandoned vacant lots and drab institutional settings into colorful and lively community commons in Boston, New York, Newark, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Louisville KY, Pittsburgh, Columbus OH, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco and Berkeley.
Karl Linn started (or inspired into being) community design centers in ten cities, and his work was a catalyst for the creation of the first domestic Peace Corps, VISTA, which later become Americorps. Committed to a kinder, more compassionate world, Linn co-founded Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) in 1981. And in 1989, with Carl Anthony, he co-founded Urban Habitat, an organization that empowers lowincome urban communities.
The book is indexed and offers a foreword by eco-philosopher and author Joanna R. Macy, and an epilogue by environmental and social justice leader Carl Anthony, plus an extensive addendum of resources for creating community commons.
“Karl Linn's compassion, humanity and insight into what makes good community
design—and what, in fact, makes community itself—is exactly what much of the
world needs to develop if we are to evolve beyond our current frightful state of
affairs. He saw the need for space and safety, beauty and joy in people's lives—
especially the lives of poor children—and he filled it by the truckload.”
—Alice Walker, author, The Color Purple
“We stand on the shoulders of Karl Linn, each of us who acts to creatively reclaim
the commons for each and all communities. Karl Linn understood the greatest
revolutionary secrets of all: not to fight but to create, not to be alone but to be
together.”
—Mark Lakeman, founder, City Repair
“There was only one Karl Linn—a master at using design to create community
and empower people.”
—Chester Hartman, founder, Poverty & Race Research Council
New Village Press (www.newvillagepress.net) is a not-for-profit publisher devoted to the building of vibrant communities. It is a public-benefit venture of Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR).
###