• Walkability indexes are flawed. Let's find a better method

    Walking is vital to the economy, livability, and environment. Why can't we measure how many people are walking, versus driving, using data from smart phones?
    Walk Score was launched in 2007 and it was hailed as a big advance for pedestrians and urbanists. For the first time, you could type in an address anywhere in the US and get a score from 0 to 100 on “walkability.” Walk Score began as a small-scale project with a mission, “to promote walkable...Read more

  • Experience is the new buzzword for walkable town centers

    As the retail market becomes less certain, mixed-use developers look to other ways to boost foot traffic and create a destination.
    Online retail sales are having a mixed impact on urbanism. Downtowns are thriving, but many walkable mixed-use centers in the suburbs are struggling, says retail expert and urbanist Bob Gibbs of Gibbs Planning . Some mixed-use developments are focusing on “experience” to create foot traffic and...Read more

  • Better alternatives to Mr. Potato Head architecture

    Background buildings don't need to be ugly or use pointless variety in the “break-up-the-box” style.
    I recently criticized the architecture of multifamily buildings that too often prevails in US cities this decade. Materials and façade elements are often varied and juxtaposed in a way that is incoherent, and the buildings convey little order or sense of place. They look similar in Dallas, Denver,...Read more

  • Terminated view, the old and the new

    State Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, designed as part of the City Beautiful movement in the early 20th Century, was refurbished a few years back through a program called City Beautiful 2.0. The building at the end of the street is the Pennsylvania State Capitol. "I used to admire this street...Read more