• Driving per capita is in a long-term stall

    "Normalizing for population, VMT per capita has seen zero net growth since 2002," notes a recent post from the State Smart Transportation Initiative. This reality is at odds with transportation modeling, which consistently overestimates traffic growth in projections, SSTI writes. This leads to...Read more

  • Starchitecture skyline

    You can't make a decent city solely with the kinds of buildings designed by today's big-name architects.
    "I think every city is allowed one Frank Gehry building, but could you imagine an entire city made out of Frank Gehry buildings?" says John Torti of Torti Gallas + Partners. The image above, of "starchitect" buildings assembled in a poster by starchitect Rem Koolhaas , is one way of imagining such...Read more

  • Parking lot designed as an avenue

    Parking lots are among the ugliest and most common features of the American landscape. They cost a lot of money, use tremendous land, and make much of our cities less walkable. Yet as long as we drive, we do need parking. Parking doesn't have to be ugly. There are ways to provide far more value—...Read more

  • Breaking the NIMBY impasse with design

    A recent The New York Times article The Bipartisan Cry of 'Not in My Backyard' reporting on opposition from across the political spectrum to higher-density housing, failed to mention a crucial point, says Nathan Norris, founding principal of the CityBuilding Partnership . "What is missing in the...Read more