Celebration, U.S.A.: Living in Disney's Brave New Town

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: As a follower of the Celebration story for many years, I was greatly disappointed by what I thought would be a new and interesting perspective on the model town. It was nothing of the sort. The book had the feel of so many pages of anti-Disney propaganda, and the repetitiveness of a bad serial. The authors of Celebration U.S.A. clearly made up their minds about Celebration long before signing off on a mortgage. Lacking in the detail needed to illustrate Celebration's experiment with the tenets of neotraditional style, the book offered splashes of cliched generalities such as "a return to the past" and "recapturing tradition." It soon became some sort of mantra exhorting Disney's ownership of the town, the rules imposed on property improvements and maintenance, and, interestingly, the attention the town received. Most tactless of all was the shadow of mockery cast on every description of residents, conversation with neighbors, and interaction with people doing what the authors SHOULD have been doing: giving the town a chance.

Rating:
Summary: An engaging book. An important book.
Review: Celebration may be the most important experiment in urban living in the last quarter century. Douglas Frantz and Cathy Collins have written exactly the kind of book most of us want to read on the topic -- one that's well-researched and well thought out, but also deeply personal and highly engaging. Their narrative flows along at an unstoppable pace. As you turn from incident to incident, from chapter to chapter, you don't even realize you're learning so much -- about the history of utopias, about arhictecture, about the promise and peril of starting over from scratch. Not until you near the end do you realize you've been privvy to one of the great experiments in the American Dream.

Most of the commentary about this book suggests it is about Disney. It's not. This book is about America, about how we love to build something to new, and about the problems that come when our dreams come up against reality. No matter what community you live in, this book will help make your neighborhood a better place, because it will help you be a better neighbor.

Rating:
Summary: well written, but not too deep
Review: Earlier this year, i was going to be in Orlando for a conference and wanted to visit Celebration as i have an interest, both personal and professional, in urban design. I read Celebration, U.S.A. before i went. I think that my visit was enriched by having read this book before i went.

I found the book provides an interesting and useful introduction to Celebration and New Urbanism. Frantz and Collins provide an narrative history of the development of Celebration as well as an interesting introduction to New Urbanism, etc. We experience alot from the personal leve. They write very well and the book moves readily along. They describe numerous problems with Celebration as well as how the expectations of many residents shaped their reaction to Celebration. It is a fairly fun book, though a little too upbeat at times.

On the other hand, the depth of analysis isn't there and, given the market that this book is directed at, probably wasn't intended to be there.

As an introduction to Celebration and an alternative approach to urban design, this book is worth it. Just don't expect too much.

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad
Review: I bought this book out of a growing interest in New Urbanism sparked by a paper I wrote for one of my courses last year on James Howard Kunstler's "Home From Nowhere" (which is an excellent book, by the way). On the whole, I enjoyed reading "Celebration, U.S.A.", but I did have one problem with it: it seemed that the authors went into the project with the goal of observing the people living there "from within". However, once they got there, they got sort of drawn into the whole culture, and, in my opinion, lost a lot of their objectivity. That was probably the worst thing about the book. The rest of it was well researched, well written, and a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, informative,intruiging,although incomplete
Review: I decided to place myself on location for this reading. I spent a delightful 12 mornings, sipping au laits at Barnies, rocking by the lake and watching Celebrationites start their day, as I delved into this book. Like all good authors should,Doug and Cathy had done their homework. I could imagine it would be a difficult task to uncover as much of the dirt as they did. The Disney Corp. obviously went to extraordinary lengths to keep bad news under wraps and as new homeowners of rather expensive dreams, I could understand hesitation and guarded friendliness among the residents of this village. At the end ,I was left with the uncertainty of their purpose. Was it to gather the info, write the book and leave town. Or was this family drawn to the dream of this new social experience with a strong desire to contribute to its evolution, at least with more perserverence than the 18 months or so. I was surprised to find out that they had moved out of Celebration before the book was released. Given their "tell all" details of some of the more intimate goings-on at neighbors houses, perhaps fear of an old fashion lynching of yesteryear was adequate motivation to say adios.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It![.]
Review: I read this book AFTER visiting Celebration, Florida. I was interested in more background info and details. We walked down the Main St of town and thought "this is nice" but not very practical. Practical is shopping in [local store] and buying groceries in[local store]. The days of the corner grocer and little hardware store on Main St are long gone so I was curious about the opinions of the author and his neighbors. This is a great story - it seems to be unbiased and does provide good background info on the town without making it boring. The author nicely weaves little stories about the town or tales of the neighbors into this "documentary" to keep the story moving. I know this book is not for everybody but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's also a great commentary on planned communities in general although I'm not sure that was what the authors intended.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It![.]
Review: Unlike some of the earlier reviewers, I didn't think this was anti-Disney or anti-Celebration. After reading it, I almost wanted to move to Celebration myself! (If it had decent transit connections to Orlando it could be paradise). The authors' love for the place showed through, and the only thing that mystified me was why they left.

The authors do discuss the very real problems with Celebration's schools and construction; this part of the book could have benefited from a comparison with traditional suburbs, to show readers that Celebration's problems exist in typical suburban sprawl as well -- as anyone who saw what Hurricane Andrew did to Miami's sprawl houses knows!

Rating:
Summary: Not as hostile as some think
Review: Unlike some of the earlier reviewers, I didn't think this was anti-Disney or anti-Celebration. After reading it, I almost wanted to move to Celebration myself! (If it had decent transit connections to Orlando it could be paradise). The authors' love for the place showed through, and the only thing that mystified me was why they left.

The authors do discuss the very real problems with Celebration's schools and construction; this part of the book could have benefited from a comparison with traditional suburbs, to show readers that Celebration's problems exist in typical suburban sprawl as well -- as anyone who saw what Hurricane Andrew did to Miami's sprawl houses knows!