• Leveraging a trail hub for a thriving downtown

    The Xenia Hub District plan aims to rebuild a neighborhood around a multi-use trail hub near downtown.
    The small city of Xenia, Ohio, has a unique asset: multiple long-distance bicycle trails that converge around Xenia Station, a historic hub of former rail lines that attract visitors from far and wide. The Hub District is only a few blocks from the heart of downtown. A design team co-sponsored by...Read more

  • Guerilla Urbanism asks forgiveness, not permission

    From toilet plungers for bike lanes to community gardens on vacant lots to locally sourced incremental development, citizens are finding creative ways to make urban space while bypassing traditional bureaucratic systems.
    Guerilla Urbanism is a grassroots movement that allows ordinary citizens to reclaim and reshape urban spaces, explains Fernando Pages Ruiz, a homebuilder, developer, and author based in Houston, Texas. It harnesses Tactical Urbanism but differs in that it more directly challenges the power...Read more

  • Artistic, industrial neighborhood plans to stay quirky as it grows

    The Cincinnati neighborhood of Camp Washington has a remarkable capacity for economic development, but the challenge is to manage growth without losing the unique mix of buildings, uses, and people.
    Camp Washington was decimated by population loss over the last 50 years. Now, the Cincinnati neighborhood has remarkable economic development potential. The community’s industry and proximity to the University of Cincinnati and downtown make it an ideal future research and development hub. A recent...Read more

  • Kentlands gets a downtown makeover

    Design changes to the center of Kentlands, the influential traditional neighborhood development, show the potential for urbanism to improve as it ages.
    The test of urbanism is whether it can evolve and change over time, becoming more interesting with each iteration. Many early New Urbanism projects are beginning to molt and transform as buildings age. Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was designed in 1988 by DPZ and expanded in 1996 when a town...Read more