• The conversation about urban growth thoughtfully continues

    The merits of fixing and repairing cities are unarguable. Planning areas outside of cities is a more fraught discussion. However, based on current urban growth trajectories, we must build new towns even as we improve existing towns and cities.
    Recent articles about the new community of Daybreak have stoked the debate about the worthiness of greenfield vs. infill development. At Urban Design Associates (UDA), we work in both environments. We began working Daybreak in 2006, just after the completion of Phase 1. As Principal-in-Charge of...Read more

  • The potential of places like New Bedford

    A quarter of the nation lives in smaller cities, which are often overlooked but more affordable, have great assets, and have room to grow.
    Like most coastal cities, New Bedford, Massachusetts, boasts an impressive display of boats in the downtown harbor, and waterfront restaurants thrive with a view of these vessels, docks, and the water beyond. The difference is that New Bedford’s are clearly working boats, not recreational craft...Read more

  • Adding value to a commercial shopping center

    Wheatland Plaza in Duncanville is a model for adding value to an underutilized site along a suburban arterial through an efficient mixed-use design.
    As retail suffers and goes through technological change, this presents problems and opportunities for local communities—some of which can be solved through design transformations. Thousands of strip malls are struggling or vacant, especially in the suburbs. This image from Wheatland Plaza in...Read more

  • Kentucky wins in a walk

    Basketball fans across America have filled out their brackets using all kinds of analysis, but probably nobody else is using Walk Score to determine NCAA predictions. Here’s how the teams would fare.
    UPDATE: The Walk Score picks have not done so well after the first full weekend. Only six Sweet Sixteen Walk Score picks survived: Florida, Duke, Houston, Purdue, Kentucky, and Tennessee. St. John's, which we projected as a finalist, lost in a first-round upset. We only have a chance for two in the...Read more