• Why we need to design community into neighborhoods

    The author of Fragile Neighborhoods urges urban planners to take on a vital domestic challenge: Help restore the social function of neighborhoods.
    Improving the physical design of the built environment is not enough, argues author Seth Kaplan. He contends that healthy communities need formal and informal institutions that promote social interaction for humans to thrive. “We can’t just build with a vision of the built environment; we need a...Read more

  • Florida town adopts ‘Big Green Network’

    An Olmsted-inspired plan for Lake Wales, Florida, would revitalize the core, promote new growth in walkable neighborhoods, and preserve green space around the town.
    Lake Wales City Commission unanimously adopted Lake Wales Envisioned , a growth plan for the Central Florida community built around a network of green spaces, walkable neighborhoods, and a wide range of mobility options. The plan prepared by Dover, Kohl & Partners evolved from Lake Wales...Read more

  • Car-optional community is model for attainable housing

    The Finley Street Cottages in Atlanta show how attainable housing can be built without subsidy, enabled by incremental zoning reform.
    The “car-lite” Finley Street Cottages with zero off-street parking spaces are a model of attainable rental housing without subsidy. Kronberg Urbanists + Architects ( KUA ) designed a dozen living spaces built by Fortis Homes on two historic single-family lots in Atlanta. Urbanize Atlanta asks...Read more

  • Urban exodus and new urban reunion

    In the early 1980s, a young architect, Dhiru Thadani, saw a lecture by another young architect, Andres Duany, who was designing a new town called Seaside with his wife and partner, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Duany explained how the elements of cities decanted, one at a time, to the suburbs in the...Read more