• Why we need ‘plug and play urbanism’

    New Urbanism needs an optimum combination of standardization and customization, drawing lessons from other industries—and from natural systems.
    Imagine that it’s 1983, and you are in the very young business of cellular telephones. The only unit available is the massive Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, a brick-like object that costs $4,000, takes ten hours to charge, and provides just 30 minutes of talk time—IF you happen to be in the very few areas...Read more

  • How a Manhattan park pioneered Main Street placemaking

    Learning from Bryant Park: Revitalizing Cities, Towns, and Public Spaces, is an entertaining and important book for urbanists across America.
    It may be hard to believe now, but several decades ago Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan was a dangerous place. It was dubbed “needle park” for the drug dealers and their customers who occupied it. Surrounding office towers were plagued by vacancy. After a four-year renovation by the Bryant Park...Read more

  • Riverfront visions transforming the Twin Cities

    The Mississippi River is an armature for economic development and public space in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The future of both cities, and the goal of equitable development, are tied to the riverfront.
    Both Saint Paul and Minneapolis are river cities, linked historically to mills and barge traffic on the Mississippi, and they are reclaiming a significant portion of the riverfront for public space and economic development. Most of the public space in both cities is on the Mississippi or waterways...Read more

  • Urban development plan stops freeway

    A grassroots organization, Reconnecting Pasadena, helped to defeat an in-city freeway by proposing a mixed-use, urban alternative.
    In December of 2019, the California Assembly voted to remove the 710 Freeway completion from the State Transportation Map, ending the longest urban freeway battle in the US. A 70-acre parcel, worth an estimated $500 million or more, that was cleared in the 1960s to make way for the freeway, is...Read more