• Utah City breaks ground, a very ambitious TOD

    A new transit-oriented development in Utah is planned with the density and amenities of a big city downtown.
    Utah City is the biggest and most ambitious transit-oriented development (TOD) that I have ever seen. Surprisingly, it is breaking ground not in New York, DC, or LA, but on a windswept, barren site near Provo, Utah. “Located on the east shore of Utah Lake, this will be Utah County’s largest...Read more

  • I-81 transformation begins in Syracuse, but design is still an issue

    New York State DOT is moving forward with replacing the I-81 viaduct, which has divided the Upstate city for six decades, with a grid of streets. But the design will determine whether this is a human-scale community grid or marred by a suburban arterial.
    The City of Syracuse and the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) agree that a "community grid" best replaces the aging Interstate 81 viaduct that has divided the city since the 1960s. Despite an ongoing court challenge from opponents, the state started clearing trees in July to...Read more

  • Toward a pattern language of corridors

    These five design and implementation ideas could be repeated in many locations to create more equitable and sustainable, socially and economically robust corridors.
    Automobile-oriented thoroughfares are the dominant form of corridors in modern urban America. Finding a way to tame those corridors—making them multimodal and valuable for many kinds of users—is a prime task for urban planners, jurisdictions, land developers, and traffic engineers. These corridors...Read more

  • Walkable, mixed-use on a former suburban brownfield

    The Proscenium is a key part of one of the largest, coordinated, suburban retrofit endeavors anywhere in the US.
    The Indianapolis suburb of Carmel, Indiana, is creating a downtown on a 1.5-mile-long corridor that includes a wide range of development types and public spaces, reform of streets, and a unique rails-to-trails project. From a 21st Century planning and development point of view, it is one of the...Read more