• Hurricane-ravaged city bounces back with new main street

    Charter award-winning plan is the basis for a much-needed makeover of Harrison Avenue, Panama City, Florida.
    Panama City, Florida, is well on its way to rebuilding from Category 5 Hurricane Michael, which swept away 95 percent of the tree canopy and damaged 90 percent of buildings downtown in 2018. In 2020, the city and Dover Kohl & Partners won a Charter Award for the Strategic Vision for Panama City...Read more

  • Responding to disaster with placemaking hubs

    New urbanists are working in devastated areas in North Carolina, helping to set up the kernels of community rebuilding.
    After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, new urbanists ran a charrette in an enormous ballroom, drawing elaborate plans to rebuild 11 cities and town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That historic effort had long-term benefits, but was arguably far removed from day-to-day realities of the victims at the time...Read more

  • Five reasons why urban practitioners should care about resilience

    Urban practitioners are uniquely positioned to shape not only our cities and communities but also the future of the environment in which we live.
    Last week as this post was scheduled to go out, I stood overlooking my quaint small town where 12-plus feet of water was rushing through our Main Street. The usually slow-flowing, fun river had swelled over its banks due to increased flow from Hurricane Helene. Searching for gas, groceries, and...Read more

  • A requiem for the River Arts District

    The flagship for authentic incrementalism in Asheville, North Carolina, is gone, flooded by Helene.
    If you identified as an artist and sought to surround yourself with like kind, there was only one place in North Carolina to go: The River Arts District . I was in the mountains on September 27th, 2024, immediately after Hurricane Helene hit. Few areas were hit harder than River Arts. Much of the...Read more