• Saint Jane

    Note: 2016 is the centennial of the birth of Jane Jacobs. Jane Jacobs’s pivotal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , is the most influential American text about the inner workings of cities—of how they fail but also of how cities succeed. Since its publication in 1961, the book has...Read more

  • Where millennials live

    The often quoted cliche that millennials are moving downtown is not quite accurate. The greatest share of young adults is choosing urban neighborhoods outside of downtown. Just over a third of millennials identified in this 2014 nationwide survey live in such neighborhoods—preferably the walkable...Read more

  • Compact development cuts water runoff

    Compact development is the best for protecting watersheds because it reduces per capita runoff, according to this graph from the Crabtree Group. Most stormwater narratives state that density is bad because the increased runoff is only considered on a per-acre basis instead of both per-acre and per-...Read more

  • Naturally terminated vista

    Little in this world is more powerful and satisfying to humans than a well-designed human habitat juxtaposed against nature.
    Little in this world is more powerful and satisfying to humans than a well-designed human habitat juxtaposed against nature. The photo of the center of Banff, Alberta, Canada, shows Banff Avenue, with Snow Peak in the distance. The mountain town was laid out with Rocky Mountain peaks terminating...Read more