• Reconfronting sprawl: Still paved with good intentions and asphalt

    After taking a back seat to urban revival for a decade or more, American suburbs are once again in the driver's seat of growth. Can they be built sustainably?
    Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series that was written for Doug Kelbaugh's upcoming book THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities in the War against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation, due out in April of 2019. No one better reveals the problems of sprawl than David Owen in his precocious,...Read more

  • Safetyism, fragility, and community design

    Our built environment separates everything to reduce conflict and make us safe—it may instead do the opposite.
    I am reading The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, which speaks, in part, of the culture of “safetyism” that has taken hold in American discourse and higher education. The authors draw from ancient wisdom, psychological theory, and science to make the case that it...Read more

  • A suburban town looks at retrofit options

    With transit on the way, Amherst, New York, reimagines its future.
    Amherst, a 122,000-population suburban town adjacent to the City of Buffalo, New York, is going through a transition. Buffalo's mass transit line is planned to be extended into Amherst, presenting an opportunity for mixed-use, transit-oriented nodes. This suburban retrofit opportunity would...Read more

  • Post office moved, town solid

    A worker October 17 puts the finishing touches on the 33-year-old Seaside, Florida, post office, which was moved to a new location on the town's Central Square. Someone uses the facility later that day. Hurricane Michael landed on the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm on October 10, the most...Read more