• Not New Urbanism, nor a ‘small town’

    I was looking through the recent report, The Best Small Towns to Live Across America , published by Stacker . This kind of real estate list attracts attention, sucks you in like an awards show (which places did they pick?), and is based on nothing very real. Stacker engages in “data journalism,”...Read more

  • Sunbelt leads pedestrian deaths

    Dangerous by Design 2021 highlights the connection between roadway design and the tragic toll on people walking.
    Findings from the sixth biennial Dangerous by Design report have been released, and the sprawling metropolitan areas of the Sunbelt are leading the way in pedestrian deaths. The 2021 report draws attention to the connection between roadway design and pedestrian injuries and death nationwide. “Many...Read more

  • Time to move beyond the style wars

    A humanist framing, prioritizing the public, returns beauty to its rightful place as an essential component of good architecture.
    In order to move beyond the style wars that have plagued the debate between modernists and traditionalists for the last 75 years, I’d like to propose a humanist framing, one that prioritizes the public, on whose ground and in whose sight we build. This means architects have a greater responsibility...Read more

  • Building rehabs revive main street

    The character of Georgia Avenue, a historic Atlanta main street, was preserved while injecting new life into a neglected neighborhood.
    Atlanta is more or less divided into quadrants by major Interstates—I-20 and I-75/85—that meet downtown in a tremendous spaghetti junction. Just to the east of I-20 a large sports complex created a “zone of neglect” along an adjacent historic main street, Georgia Avenue, serving the Summerhill...Read more