• A new path to code reform

    The Users' Guide to Code Reform leads planners through the code reform process, providing tools for governments lacking the capacity to develop a full form-based code.
    The Project for Code Reform is one of the most important efforts we’ve had the privilege of contributing to in the last decade. We’ve spent most of our professional efforts crafting Form-Based Codes (FBC) for local governments, and while we still feel that is the zoning gold standard for...Read more

  • Using urban revival to reduce poverty

    Alan Mallach discusses his new book, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America, and issues surrounding inequality in urbanizing America.
    Note: This article is part of a collaboration between Island Press and Public Square that focuses on recently published books on subjects related to urbanism. Katharine Sucher of Island Press interviews The Divided City author Alan Mallach (questions in boldface). You’ve been working in cities most...Read more

  • The water will come

    Rising sea levels will create massive displacement in coming generations—here's a number of ways that people and communities will transition from low-lying to higher locations and conditions.
    Sea level rise is considered a distant problem by millions today; either distant in years, distant in miles, or both, but they are greatly mistaken. I’ve just finished the book The Water Will Come , much of which is set in Miami Beach, where I live. For Wanda and I, the problem is here, and now. I...Read more

  • Mixed-use suburban retrofit in Rockville

    Rockville Town Square combines transit and placemaking in a mixed-use retrofit.
    In a “misguided attempt at renewal,” wrote The Washington Post , Rockville Maryland “allowed a fortress-like mall to be built in the 1970s.” That project damaged Rockville’s downtown economically and socially for three decades, until the city and county teamed with a developer to build Rockville...Read more