• New urban ghost town calls forth a different mindset

    On this gloomy February day, I think back to 2008, the start of the Great Recession, which seems like a lifetime ago. There were many large-scale projects, planned well in advance of the crash, that died. Some of these projects were new urban projects. Few left as stark a reminder as Bloomfield...Read more

  • The 5-minute intersection repair

    Architect and urban designer Tom Low says that Charlotte, North Carolina, is experiencing a "tidal wave" of infill projects, bringing in more pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders that conflict with the city's automobile-oriented street network built when the city had different priorities. "...Read more

  • From busy roadway to public square

    Reducing redundant roadway in cities can be good for people both outside and inside of vehicles.
    One thing cities need is more creative traffic planning of pedestrian-unfriendly intersections, informed by good urban design. Here's a video of a cool design for Kenmore Square, a complicated and heavily traveled intersection in the Fenway/Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, near Boston University and...Read more

  • When the parking bubble bursts

    In the last half of the 20th Century, we added massive quantities of parking to American downtowns, usually by tearing down buildings. This image by urban designer Victor Dover shows parking infrastructure, in pink, in downtown Atlanta. Many cities still have a similar amount of downtown parking...Read more