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For many Americans density is associated with ugliness, crowding, and congestion, even though it can be shown that, when properly planned and executed, higher density can save land, energy, and dollars. Moreover, many people—includ- ing some trained planners and designers—have difficulty esti- mating density from visual cues or distinguishing quantitative (measured) and qualitative (perceived) density. We tend to overestimate the density of monotonous, amenity-poor devel- opments and underestimate the density of well-designed, attractive projects, thereby reinforcing the negative stereo- types. A primary objective of this work is to correct these misperceptions. This book was commissioned by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to help planners, designers, public officials, and citizens better understand—and better communicate to oth- ers—the concept of density as it applies to the residential envi- ronment. The need for such a work is borne out repeatedly by participants in our classroom courses, also titled Visualizing Density,who share stories of proposed residential developments of appropriate density that had been rejected outright or forced to reduce the number of housing units owing to public mis- conceptions about density. This is not to say that every resi- dential project that has failed to win approval on account of its density was necessarily well conceived. To address this issue, the authors also discuss and illustrate the importance of good planning and design in gaining acceptance of density. This book addresses both the “why” and the “how” of density. In the first chapter, “Growing Closer,” Julie Campoli describes the density challenge in the United States: Will we be able to accommodate significant growth in population and housing units while reversing the trend of increasing rates of land consumption? The second chapter, “Patterns of Den- sity,” can be used as a manual on planning and designing for “good” density, bringing together both quantitative and quali- tative aspects of residential development. Finally, “The Den- sity Catalog” is a set of reference images presented in order of increasing density, based on Alex MacLean’s superb aerial pho- tography and clear diagrams of street patterns drawn by Julie Campoli. I am very pleased to be adding this book to the body of materials on planning and urban form produced by the Lincoln Institute. It is the culmination of more than five years of collab- oration with Alex and Julie, who have developed a classroom course offered at sites around the country, as well as illustrated working papers and a Visualizing Density Web site that can be accessed through www.lincolninst.edu. We have packaged this book with a CD of the images in the Density Catalog to facili- tate their noncommercial use in public discussions and educa- tion programs. We hope this dramatic visual material and explanatory text will provide a robust set of tools and techniques for those engaged in planning and designing the roughly 60 million housing units that we can expect to build in this country over the next 25 years. While all density may not be “good” den- sity, it is time we redeem the word and reap the social, eco- nomic, and environmental benefits of creating the right density in the right places. — Armando Carbonell Chairman Department of Planning and Urban Form Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Foreword vii