New Suburbanism: Sustainable Tall Building Development

Kheir Al-Kodmany is a Professor of Sustainable Urban Design in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His recent book entitled Eco-Towers: Sustainable Cities in the Sky (2015) is an encyclopedia on green design and tall buildings. His earlier book, co-authored with Professor Mir Ali, is entitled The Future of the City: Tall Buildings and Urban Design (2012). Professor Al-Kodmany has published nearly 100 articles on planning and architectural design; some appeared in top peer-reviewed journals. Before joining the UIC faculty, Professor Al-Kodmany worked on tall building projects as an architectural designer for the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and he continues consulting on architecture and planning projects. He won several international architectural and urban design competitions. He also worked as a consultant to the Jordanian Government on integrating high-rise development in the Amman Master Plan. He received his early training in architecture from his late father Professor Abdul Muhsen Al-Kodmany, a Le Corbusier trainee. Professor Al-Kodmany helped the Saudi Government in facilitating the performance of safe Hajj by applying visualization and crowd management techniques to reconfigure and expand the existing infrastructure to accommodate about three million pilgrims who travel to Mecca for the event annually. He helped the City of Chicago in crowd management, emergency evacuation and planning for the 'Taste of Chicago' event. He also served as the Co-Director of the Urban Data Visualization Laboratory at UIC where he developed 3D modeling, virtual reality, GIS, and web-based mapping survey tools and software for effective participatory planning and design.

’Kheir Al-Khodmany, the skyscraper savant, opens our eyes to the advent of new suburbanism in the form of tall buildings in inner suburbs. With penetrating analyses of high-rise structures in Washington, DC, Chicago, and Miami, he shows how sustainable development and suburbs need not be in conflict and lays out design guidelines for integrating towers into all types of suburban settlements.’ David R. Godschalk, University of North Carolina, USA ’Meticulously researched and written by a scholar well versed in the field, the book is a refreshing and long-overdue work on the architectural and urban design implications of tall buildings related to suburbia. It provides an insightful account of wide-ranging issues encompassing the social and environmental aspects of tall building development - most importantly, sustainable architectural design and site planning strategies.’ Mir M. Ali, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and author of Art of the Skyscraper ’Want to know how to use high-rise buildings to create better suburbs? Tall buildings expert Kheir Al-Kodmany hits controversies and challenges head on, discussing long-term masterplans, like the Washington Metro and Reston, Virginia and focusing on immediate issues of urban design, sustainable building systems, local approval strategy, and more. Al-Kodmany covers it all.’ Lewis D. Hopkins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

• Introduction, Part I: The Evolution of Suburbanism and New Suburbanism, 1. The Evolution of the American Suburbs, 2. Unsustainable Suburbs and the Rise of New Suburbanism, 3. New Suburbanism and Tall Buildings, Part II: Case Studies, 4. Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, 5. Miami Metropolitan Area, 6. Chicago Metropolitan Area, Part III: Sustainable Tall Building Development, 7. A Sustainable Approach for Tall Building Development, 8. Sustainable Architectural Design and Site Planning: Principles and Features, 9. Sustainable Tall Buildings: Case Studies, 10. Conclusions