• Reuse of buildings celebrates architecture and public space

    Adaptive reuse of building ensemble in Providence, Rhode Island, restores significant mixed-use structures, improves public space, and provides contextual architecture in a historic downtown.
    Providence, Rhode Island, has a history typical of a US East Coast city. “Providence’s pre-war building stock was of a particularly fine quality, built on a fine-grained network of streets and blocks,” notes Union Studio, an architecture firm based there. After World War II, the downtown was hit by...Read more

  • The infrastructure of community

    Porches and sidewalks are often ignored or dismissed, but they have important roles in building community.
    There was a time when The New Urbanism was belittled as “The New Porchism” for its propensity toward old-fashioned porches in developments like Seaside, Kentlands, and Celebration. Although new urbanists went to great lengths designing (usable) porches and explaining how this architectural feature—...Read more

  • Protect the porch

    The porch is more than just another single-family architectural feature, it's an important part of the culture of Black neighborhoods.
    As a young black man growing up dually in the urban oasis of Memphis and the countryside of Bells, Tennessee, I repeatedly encountered an architectural element in both places: the porch. My maternal grandmother was a front porch person; she enjoyed the street-watching (she didn't know who Jane...Read more

  • Utah City breaks ground, a very ambitious TOD

    A new transit-oriented development in Utah is planned with the density and amenities of a big city downtown.
    Utah City is the biggest and most ambitious transit-oriented development (TOD) that I have ever seen. Surprisingly, it is breaking ground not in New York, DC, or LA, but on a windswept, barren site near Provo, Utah. “Located on the east shore of Utah Lake, this will be Utah County’s largest...Read more