• Growing cultural life and mobility in a small city

    Railyard Park in Rogers is the central public space the city has always lacked—providing a place for diverse activities and people, connected to a regional trail network.
    The City of Rogers was founded as a railroad service depot in Benton County, Arkansas, during the 1880s. In 1950, the town still had only 5,000 people. Nearby, Sam Walton started a retail chain in the 1960s that would spur massive growth and forever change the rural town. Now, Rogers is a small...Read more

  • Children, left behind by suburbia, need better community design

    Walkable, mixed-use planning is the key to getting young people outside again and enabling their independence.
    “Why don’t children leave the house?” Childhood in America is losing its charm. The lack of effective transit, coupled with the lack of kid-friendly destinations and the feeling of more dangerous neighborhoods, means that today’s youth find it harder than ever to go outside, meet up with friends,...Read more

  • When planners walk on the wild side

    The playful genesis of a new walkable urbanism geometry that seeks and explores walking trails in town and at the urban-natural boundary.
    “You never really feel like you’re building trails out here … Only finding them.” — Lawin Mohammad “Like with a mandala or a labyrinth … I circle and pass similar points along the way, discovering slightly altered variations on a familiar theme … perspectives deepened, elaborated and embroidered,...Read more

  • Food trucks and people friendly cities

    What can the humble food truck teach us about Urbanism?
    Walking home after an afternoon class one day at my alma mater, UW - Madison, I decided to walk through Library Mall. Library Mall is a pedestrian-only plaza surrounded by public buildings: two libraries (shocker I know), the UW bookstore, a church, and several other university buildings. From...Read more