• 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

  • Malls to mixed-use centers and other opportunities

    While hundreds of malls are declining, they are also being reused for all kinds of purposes—including walkable urban places in communities lacking in this kind of environment.
    This is one of a series of ongoing Public Square articles on the market, technological, and cultural transformation of the $5 trillion retail industry—and how it relates to a continued shift toward walkable, urban living. The retail industry is going through major upheaval. This situation does not...Read more