• Kentlands gets a downtown makeover

    Design changes to the center of Kentlands, the influential traditional neighborhood development, show the potential for urbanism to improve as it ages.
    The test of urbanism is whether it can evolve and change over time, becoming more interesting with each iteration. Many early New Urbanism projects are beginning to molt and transform as buildings age. Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was designed in 1988 by DPZ and expanded in 1996 when a town...Read more

  • Are superblocks the future of urban living?

    Meet the urban design theory rethinking life in the city.
    The recent referendum in Paris, which approved tripling parking fees for SUVs entering the city, is the latest in a string of actions across the European continent aimed at ushering in a new era of post-car urban living. But as automobiles increasingly leave the historic streets of cities like...Read more

  • Living ‘car-free’ in the Arizona desert

    A YouTube influencer takes for a tour of Culdesac Tempe, one of the more interesting new developments today.
    A Harvard researcher with a heat gun last summer measured the temperatures on the Tempe, Arizona, sidewalk at 137°F—but inside a new car-free development the plaza surface was 90°F. That’s one eye-opening data point offered in a new video of Culdesac Tempe, one of the most-closely watched US...Read more

  • Porches, walkability, and sustainability

    The design keys to making a porch comfortable, usable, and sociable are explained and diagrammed.
    Editor's note: This is an update of an article first published in 2009 on The Original Green , with larger images. Steve Mouzon's diagrams take a few minutes to study (at least for me, to fully understand). They are a valuable tool to properly use the elements of that impact front porch comfort and...Read more