| This study is a probe into the characteristics and meaning of the new suburban landscape. It explores the attractions and costs this landscape holds for the men and women who have chosen to live here, and the impact their tastes and decisions have on their surroundings. Focusing on a suburban area near Kansas City, I present research based largely on interviews with new subdivision homeowners, and supplement it with field observation, written surveys, and expert interviews.; New subdivisions offer a unique opportunity for landscape interpretation. This is a new and deliberately constructed place. Homebuyers influence and are influenced by developers, builders, realtors, politicians, and homeowners' associations. The created environment presents a text both by and about its human population. I examine individual physical components, overall visual effects, and verbal descriptions as a means of understanding a neighborhood form that has been regarded with both disdain and nostalgia.; I argue that a number of contradictions exist between common ways of talking about new suburbs and feelings of satisfaction conveyed by residents. Although negative suburban images are widely accepted, visual symbols represent achievement, family, security, lifestyle, and group identity. These make the landscape desirable and pleasing to its inhabitants---in the absence of physical beauty---and lead to its perpetuation, rather than its modification to fit traditional landscape aesthetics. |
