• May the Charter be with you

    May 4 is the anniversary of two important historical events, both taking place on the East Coast of the US, eighty years apart, that have helped shape modern planning and urbanism for the better around the world. Only the first occurrence is widely recognized. I may be the only person, actually,...Read more

  • Supporting food economy and public space for working-class neighborhood

    SCLT Headquarters is an adaptive building reuse and urban plan for a working-class area in Providence, RI. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a Merit Award in the Block, Street, and Building category of the CNU 2023 Charter Awards.
    Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) was born in 1981 when Hmong refugees and Brown University graduates began growing healthy, culturally familiar food on vacant lots in south Providence, Rhode Island. SCLT now manages almost 60 urban gardens and 50 acres of suburban farmland that produce food...Read more

  • A small city rebuilds downtown with a focus on urbanism

    Hammond Downtown Master Plan has enabled the Northwest Indiana city to kick start its downtown revival. Speck & Associates and Stantec’s Urban Places won a Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the CNU 2023 Charter Awards.
    Based on the past sixty years, one would expect Hammond, Indiana, to continue shrinking and its downtown to stagnate indefinitely. But the suburb of Chicago has other factors in its favor, according to Jeff Speck, who led the design team for a recent Downtown Master Plan . A commuter rail station...Read more

  • Three zoning reforms for compact housing

    A beautifully illustrated article on the Placemakers website offers ideas on compact living, based on case studies of “missing middle” housing types in a village in Wales. Author Susan Henderson, an urban designer and coding expert who is based in New Mexico, relates lessons learned to housing...Read more