• Station plan highlights the strength of an artfully drawn vision

    West Chester Market Station is a practical and appealing plan for a disused rail stop west of Philadelphia. Notre Dame architecture student Benjamin Shelton won a Student Charter Award in the Block, Street, and Building category of CNU 2022 Charter Awards
    The design of a market and square at a disused regional rail (SEPTA) stop in historic West Chester Borough, Pennsylvania, won the 2022 Student Charter Award. The exceptionally well-detailed plan combines a variety of existing buildings with new, classical buildings. Benjamin Shelton, a graduate...Read more

  • Rebuilding a neighborhood in beleaguered Beirut

    The Port and the City offers hope for a neighborhood in Beirut that is recovering from a major disaster. A University of Miami School of Architecture team won a Student Merit Award in CNU's 2022 Charter Awards.
    In August of 2020, one of the largest human-caused, nonnuclear explosions in history destroyed the port and adjacent neighborhoods in Beirut, Lebanon. A University of Miami team drafted a plan to rebuild Karantina, one of the damaged neighborhoods, with an urban and architectural vision based on...Read more

  • Yes, a comprehensive plan can be ‘Lean’

    Add to the list of oxymorons such as “jumbo shrimp,” “deafening silence,” and “military intelligence,” the idea of a “lean comprehensive plan.” In the planning field, a comprehensive plan often takes 30 years to update, and is usually anything but lean. As the name suggests, it covers everything...Read more

  • Apple Park(ing) and the high cost of corporate greenwash

    It’s a pity that Apple chose a 20th Century model for construction of its headquarters. Our collective attention spans are short in 2022, and Apple’s massive office building landed like a spaceship in the sprawl of Silicon Valley more than four years ago—but we shouldn’t forget its cost. “Apple's...Read more