• Visionary planning needed for troubled malls

    Many malls are going out of business, and a recent report shows that how these sites are redeveloped impacts city finances. Municipalities can influence mall reuse to promote mixed-use redevelopment that provides long-term benefits.
    A recent Barclays report highlights why municipalities with dead and dying malls need proactive and visionary planning. The long-term fiscal health of cities and town is at stake. Coming out of Covid, we are likely to see even greater numbers of dying shopping malls, leaving sites in need of...Read more

  • The corridor model for more affordable housing

    A case study by Peter Calthorpe shows the potential of underutilized suburban strips to help solve America's housing problems.
    El Camino Real may be the greatest suburban commercial corridor in America, stretching 43 miles from Daly City to San Jose—in Silicon Valley, California. It also shows the promise of suburban arterial roads in solving America’s housing problems. Like many suburban arterials, El Camino Real...Read more

  • Suburban retrofit opportunities rising due to COVID

    A new report makes the case that walkable suburbs are the are the next big development trend.
    A large cohort of home buyers is heading to the suburbs, and the group is looking for opportunities to live close to where they work, according to Suburban Boom: How COVID-19 May Accelerate the Trend Already in the Making , by analysts Cushman & Wakefield. Not all suburbs are created equal—...Read more

  • Creating Temenos: An experiment in suburban retrofit

    An elegant plan to transform a struggling shopping mall into a mixed-use town center uses the same principles of sacred geometry that were employed by Pierre L'Enfant in the urban design of Washington, DC.
    “The catalog of forms is endless; until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born.” ~ Italo Calvino In an article early last year, I reported on the process by which Pierre L’Enfant designed the city of Washington, using various principles of what is known as “sacred...Read more