• Green, redevelopment fills hole created by ‘urban renewal’

    A New England-style green creates the site for mixed-use and affordable housing at the center of a historic city.
    Meriden, Connecticut, tore down its industrial heart in the middle of the 20 th Century to build an enclosed shopping mall that soon failed, replaced by a strip mall that flooded, replaced by offices that were flooded and demolished. The series of fiascos at the center of this city of 60,000,...Read more

  • The power of rails and trails

    The 12-foot-wide Blue Line Rail Trail was originally designed to provide emergency access to light rail stations along Charlotte’s Blue Line. “However, since the Blue Line began operating in late 2007, the Rail Trail has been added onto, studied, enhanced, formalized, and transformed,” according to...Read more

  • How Seaside’s public space has improved over time

    The Evolution of the Civic Realm in Seaside has been part of the ongoing transformation of a classic new urban town to meet current needs. Thadani Architects + Urbanists won a 2022 Charter Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category.
    Successional development does not only refer to buildings, according to architect Dhiru Thadani, as Seaside, Florida, makes a case that the civic realm can be steadily improved to respond to changing circumstances and present-day needs. In recent years, these improvements have included: Seaside’s...Read more

  • USC Village has street life galore

    A ton of people and a well-designed public realm combine in the alchemy of a happy place in LA.
    I was recently in southern California, for an in-person meeting of CNU staff (the first since the pandemic began), with our new executive director, Rick Cole, a long-time resident, former mayor, and city manager of Pasadena. I took Metro rail most of the way from Pasadena to LAX, but got off on an...Read more