Got A Minute
This cartoon by Jean Wei for Transportation for America perfectly depicts what happened to so many American downtowns and main streets in the latter half of the 20th Century. Older cities and towns faced many problems at the time, not the least of...
New Urbanist places sometimes get the reputation of looking like movie sets, especially some of the well-known developments like Celebration (built by Disney), and Seaside, which did serve as a set for the 1998 film The Truman Show (the filmmakers...
The Memphis Medical District is a 2.6-square-mile area that has gained plenty of jobs, but has lost most of its population in the last 50 years. The area has loads of institutional buildings and surface parking lots, and many underutilized blocks....
This view of Valletta, Malta, by urbanist Dhiru Thadani, drawn from a peninsula that extends out to in the harbor, doesn’t seem to have changed much in centuries. A photo of the same view, easy to find on the Internet, reveals a few...
Arcata Plaza, laid out along with the town’s first streets in 1850, was first used to load lumber from the sawmill—and has served as the commercial heart of the Northern California town ever since. Arcata Plaza is a square, literally, and the design...
Architectural Modernism emerged between 1900 and 1930, influenced by the industrial revolution, the rapid growth of cities, and the horrific aftermath of World War I. They were motivated by the acceleration of industrialization and social change,...
Continuous sidewalks and bike paths cross intersections so that local streets are no more disruptive than a typical driveway.
As Baby Boomers enter the market for retirement communities, they are demanding different models from the typical facilities of today, where the most prominent public feature is often a parking lot behind a gated entry. Some continuing care...
The requirements challenged the architect to design a large 8-story building that is harmonious with much smaller scale neighbors.
Bicycling is important to the 15-minute city, because it extends the range of human-powered transportation to about three miles in that time frame. This range is especially helpful in getting to work.
Dhiru Thadani drew the above cartoon image on the impact of in-city highways, which is a timely topic this week.
In the Shaw neighborhood in DC, a few blocks from downtown, a 71-unit condominium looks like two distinct buildings—a 10-story Classical one facing M Street and a six-story modern one facing 11 Street. In fact, these are the same building “melded...