• 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

  • Repairing past harm: Do designers and planners have a role?

    In a recent On the Park Bench webinar, CNU board member and former New York City Parks Commissioner Mitch Silver discussed the harm inflicted on black communities by the planning profession. He made the case for planners to mitigate inequities of historic land-use decisions. Silver quoted the code...Read more

  • How ‘creative placemaking’ enhances a sense of place

    Art focused on people in a community can provide a bridge between them and the built environment, activating public space.
    “Creative placemaking” requires rethinking the artist's role and relationship to art, according to Dayton Castleman, an artist based in Northwest Arkansas. Many artists have what Castleman calls a “white cube” mindset, a reference to a room in a gallery or studio with white walls, where the...Read more

  • Why we need to address equity within urbanism

    Architect, urban designer, and small-scale developer Marques King reviewed the legacies and precedents of racism within American land use and how this history shows us a way forward. King covered 300 years of American urbanism through an equity lens in a On the Park Bench webinar , beginning with a...Read more