• Community has it made in the shade

    Oppressive summer heat is more bearable when a walkable community is designed for shade.
    As a heat dome hovers over the eastern and southern US, the topic of heat and urbanism is especially important. Most people associate urbanism with heat islands—which make urban places hotter—but that’s not always the case. Design choices can cool down urban places and make them more comfortable...Read more

  • Leon Krier, influential urbanist and architect, dies in Spain

    Leon Krier, a giant in architecture and urbanism and one of the intellectual founders of the New Urbanism movement, died at 79 on Tuesday, June 17, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. “The work of the New Urbanist movement is grounded in the understandings of architecture, urbanism, modernity, and...Read more

  • What is a SLUG? A term for rural sprawl

    This image was recently posted on LinkedIn along with a discussion of the term SLUG, which stands for spread-out, low-density, unguided growth. Urban designer Kevin Abbott found the term in the 2013 edition of Virginia McAlester’s A Field Guide to American Houses . Some say this is another term for...Read more

  • The human side of housing

    The housing supply-demand gap has grown so huge in desirable places that the panic to add more units is overshadowing what should be obvious about human needs goals.
    As an architect, I have spent years working on community-oriented housing projects within the private market. I’ve pursued affordability through smaller home sizes, shared amenities, and simplified construction. Over the past 5 years, however, I’ve seen the market shift. The threshold at which...Read more