Currently viewing the tag: "redevelopment"
Building off of recent news about the reduction in driving, US PIRG has a new study out this week that’s garnered a lot of media attention. The study, titled “Our Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America’s Future” has the nifty summary stating, “The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady [...]
I’ve never understood the fascination so many architects have with the “brutalist” style of buildings that some designers loved in the 1960s-1970’s. Even in the haze of youth in architecture school, I found that particular style unattractive, to put it kindly.
I suppose when a style is coined “Brutalism” you should expect that it will [...]
A magazine story that I read this week had me thinking of this town with its unique town square configuration (apologies for the photo quality)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vzDDMzq7d0&feature=player_embedded
From today’s Department of the Counter-Intuitive:
Traffic signals and controls do not improve safety in busy, walkable areas. In fact, they typically provide less safety, as they encourage drivers to go even faster through areas that should require close attention. Mind blown yet?
Of course, signals are a logical result in a system that prioritizes [...]
In the world of planning today, all the rage is Tactical Urbanism. And rightfully so. Anything that gets people more involved and active in improving their communities is a good thing. More than ever, it’s great to see how people aren’t waiting around for a big plan to make life better today.
Today’s [...]
This week I’m actually sharing two photos, of the same place.
Jamison Square is one of the new public spaces created as part of the Pearl District redevelopment in Portland, OR. On this sunny weekday a few years ago, people are reveling in the splash fountain and the square in general.
Conceived in [...]
This week, Forsyth Park in Savannah, GA hosted its annual “Shalom, Y’all” Jewish food festival. What’s notable is not the fantastic brisket sandwiches, blintzes or chopped liver, but that festivals of this kind are a routine occurrence in Forsyth. Many cities have festivals, and many cities have nice parks with festivals, but is yours located [...]
Since Malcom Gladwell penned “The Tipping Point” in 2000, pundits, writers and journalists of all stripes have been obsessed with calling the next “tipping point” in their own particular field. It’s no different in urban planning. For over a decade, New Urbanists and Smart Growth advocates have been claiming we’re at or past [...]
Parts 1 and 2 of this series dealt with some analysis of public space. What is a well-designed park, square or plaza? What makes some work and others not as much? Why is this even important?
The obvious next question is – what can be done about it? Knowing what we [...]
Architect & urbanist Robert Orr, from New Haven, CT wrote a piece on his Facebook page this week that really caught my eye.
Appended below, Robert makes an excellent case for why we it would make more sense to focus on an incremental approach to improving our rail network, rather than leaping into [...]
I’ve written before that cities are not statistics. In that particular case, I was talking about how we can quantify various aspects of a city or neighborhood, but that those numbers tell us very little about life – the actual experience on the ground, whether people will walk and what kind of economic [...]
Though tempted, I won’t write a soliloquy today on the many virtues of street trees. Others have done so better than I, including Allan Jacobs, who wrote in the book Great Streets, “Given a limited budget, the most effective expenditure of funds to improve a street would probably be on trees.”
Some of my colleagues [...]
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