Aerial photographs capture the essence of suburban sprawl.
Alex Maclean has spent 25 years taking aerial photos for architects and planners. Flying below the clouds, at heights of 1,000 to 2,000-feet, gives you "a different look at the landscape and how it's put together. You're in a different scale," MacLean says. Many of his photos appear in "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream," a book co-written by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. The Christian Science Monitor presents a selection of MacLean's most compelling images, and the stories behind some of the photos.
Thanks to Chris Steins
FULL STORY: Sprawled out

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