Following the devastation of the war in Bosnia, the European Union formed the European Union Administration of Mostar (EUAM) and John Yarwood – a widely experienced architect, town planner and project manager – worked as Director of Reconstruction for EUAM for the whole of the period of its mandate, from 1994 to 1996. On behalf of the international community, the EU formed a city administration in Mostar with the goal of reconciling the former warring parties; building security and creating a unified police force; establishing freedom of movement; holding democratic elections; and establishing a City Council. It also spent DM170 million on repairing 6000 houses, 30 public buildings, 25 schools, 18 health buildings, 70 water projects, 5 bridges, a construction equipment pool and a technical training centre. Ninety buildings were de-mined and an urban planning system was established. This was a project of unique historical significance from many points of view. In a book extensively illustrated with photographs and plans, Yarwood and his collaborators describe reconstruction from a general technical standpoint. The book shows what was done; explains how it was done; and considers the problems, issues, failures and successes. It analyses what lessons were learned and points out the relevance for similar future projects. The analysis is firmly grounded in the context of Bosnian and European politics.

This book is a study of design initiatives and policies in five US West Coast cities — Seattle (including Bellevue), Portland, San Francisco, Irvine and San Diego—all of which have had particularly interesting urban design experience of relevance to practice in Britain and other countries. Although these cities are not a representative sample of all American design practice, they provide a rich vein of ideas about recent policy development and current initiatives which will stimulate thought about the formulation of effective design controls. The presentation of substantial extracts from key documents that underpin design controls in the five cities will be of interest, inspiration and practical use to academics and practitioners who want to know more about American practice and who want to contribute to improvements in the standards and quality of urban design policies and design control. The opening chapter provides a national context and a comparative framework for the study, with a focus on international perspectives, American planning systems and the development of criteria for comparison and evaluation. The five subsequent chapters take each city in turn, briefly reviewing the salient characteristics of each one before presenting an account of how planning and design policy have evolved in the last twenty-five years; key features of the contemporary systems of design control are highlighted and a summary evaluation is made. The focus in the case studies is on how policy and guidance have been formulated, structured and presented in the various documents that make up the policy framework, how the process of control operates, and how both respond to the criticisms commonly made of design and control. This final chapter draws general conclusions about the experience of the studied cities of wider relevance to American design review practice, but which are of interest to those engaged in design review and policy formulation everywhere.