• New blocks and streets repair a Sunbelt city

    Here's how Orlando replaced a hole in the city with connective tissue.
    In the mid-1990s, the City of Orlando faced the closure of the 1,100-acre Naval Training Center, two miles from downtown. The easiest reuse option for the land would have included big box stores, an office park, and/or suburban housing pods. The easy route would have provided more of what the...Read more

  • Portland considers anti-McMansion measures

    Proposed code changes are designed to reduce teardowns and encourage multiple small units in existing neighborhoods.
    Portland, Oregon, is considering an anti-McMansion ordinance designed to discourage 1:1 demolitions of small single-family homes to build very large large single-family homes. Such demolitions, usually associated with rising real estate markets where the housing stock has reached a "certain age,"...Read more

  • City of hope

    Detroit’s real renaissance is now happening in many small places, not the few big ones. Walk around Brush Park, Lower Woodward, and Midtown, and you’ll find all sorts of cool stuff popping up.
    Detroit has lost all that it’s going to lose. The city has clearly turned the corner. If you didn’t get those ruin porn shots you wanted, it’s far too late now; the ruined mansions in Brush Park have either been demolished if they were too far gone, or are now being renovated. New construction...Read more

  • Old buildings are made for you and me

    From California to the New York Islands—more business activity, affordability, and diversity can be found in neighborhoods with a range of old and new buildings.
    In a historic assets study of unprecedented scale, the National Trust for Historic Preservation looked at 50 cities in the US, examining more than 10 million buildings of all ages. Old buildings, and a diversity of scale and ages of buildings in a neighborhood, translate to more jobs and affordable...Read more