• Affordability with flair near downtown

    In an area that once suffered in-city freeway blight, this mixed-use housing project creates a beautiful urban streetwall with modern sensibility.
    In the middle of the last century, a new network of elevated highways slashed through San Francisco’s delicate historic neighborhoods. The most harmful of those was the Embarcadero Freeway along the city’s northern waterfront. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Embarcadero was demolished—...Read more

  • Bigger is not better for main street

    Roundabouts and reductions in lane widths helped to restore civic life along a US highway in a western New York village.
    Note: This case study was written for the Institute for Transportation Engineers new book Implementing Context Sensitive Design on Multimodal Corridors , funded by the Federal Highway Administration. US Route 62, connecting Niagara Falls with El Paso, traverses a 2,200-mile cross-section of America...Read more

  • How architecture can enhance a neighborhood

    The timeless and artful Plaza La Reina, a new hotel in a transit-oriented Los Angeles neighborhood, shows the impact of a building on a city.
    With its wide steps opening onto the street corner like a gift to the neighborhood, Plaza La Reina looks like it should have been part of Westwood Village from the beginning. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti referred to the Moule & Polyzoides designed hotel as an “architectural jewel in Westwood...Read more

  • A suburban town revitalizes incrementally

    Parsons Alley activates abandoned properties, creates a popular and lively new public place, and attracts businesses that appeal to young professionals.
    As downtowns and urban neighborhoods thrive across America, leaders and citizens outside city centers have begun to ask, “How do we reinvent the suburbs?” Moreover, how can this be done in an incremental way that doesn’t require a large transformative project? Major projects are hard to come by and...Read more