• Rethinking the future of state DOTs

    Here's six ways to transform communities and revitalize our economy by repurposing state departments of transportation, which are currently organized based on an outdated 1950s model.
    The modern state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) were created, by and large, in order to build the Interstate System and associated freeways . Most American roads were dirt until several decades into the 20th Century, and the idea that we needed specialized agencies created specifically to...Read more
  • Music at Wyandanch Plaza

    Transforming a distressed Long Island community

    Two mixed-use buildings face a new square with fountains and activities like ice skating and concerts, forming the core of Long Island's first major transit-oriented development.
    The center of Wyandanch, New York, was until recently a sea of parking among fading commercial strip businesses in the middle of an economically distressed community on Long Island. Now, two mixed-use buildings face a new square with fountains and activities like ice skating and concerts, forming...Read more
  • Glenwood Park Atlanta brownstones

    The neighborhood that hope built

    Glenwood Park, Atlanta, on a former industrial site, was built to restore confidence that humanity can create wonderful, walkable, loveable places.
    The site of a former concrete recycling center two miles east of downtown Atlanta is now a vibrant, mixed-use, traditional neighborhood development (TND). Its design is not only architecturally-intriguing, but also environmentally sustainable. Its persuasive pitch and later economic success led to...Read more
  • Parklet on 75th Street in Chatham.

    Parklets transform Southside Chicago street

    How urbanism can bring hope and change to a working-class African American neighborhood.
    Temporary parklets and outdoor cafes have recently boosted sales and street life on three blocks of a working-class African American community on the Southside of Chicago. The tactical public spaces in front of businesses on 75th Street in Chatham, set up for a long weekend starting July 20, were...Read more