Education & Careers

Grad School: Like a Conference, but With Less Sex

Mon, 12/01/2008 - 19:51

Most of the time it’s not that hard to kind of forget that I’m a grad student. It often feels like a long, ongoing conference, but without nametags: We hear speakers (sometimes known as professors), have long lunch breaks, do exercises, then retire to the bar at night to talk about all of it.

More similarities: None of our classrooms would be mistaken for hotel conference centers, but a bunch of them are windowless and characterless. People are cordial, but also kind of angling for a job. Everybody’s friendly, and sometimes, people hook up.

Then reality comes crashing down like a pile of books: oh yeah. Exams. We have to take those.

Skills in Planning: The Planning Portfolio

Sun, 11/30/2008 - 15:20

With the return to prominence of physical planning and increasing use of GIS, planning students are becoming interested in developing portfolios of their work. This blog entry provides tips for this process exploring why portfolios are useful, who they are aimed at, and how to design the portfolio. It provides many of the resources needed to design your own!

Beauty Queen's Day-Job is Town Planner

A town planner from Brisbane, Australia, has been crowned the beauty-queen face of an annual open-air motor racing event.
28 November 2008 - 11:00am
Gold Coast Bulletin

Dance Your Plan

Mon, 11/24/2008 - 00:46

Getting people to understand the intricacies of planning can be a challenge. The modern-day emphasis on public participation is an effort to get people involved, but it's frankly not too appealing for most people to attend public hearings about zoning amendments and setback changes. But those zoning amendments and setback changes could be pretty important. Planners need to try harder to connect with the people their work affects to explain its importance. It's time to break from convention. One possible way is dancing.

The Power Planner

Vancouver, British Columbia's planning director, Brent Toderian, has been named on of the 50 most powerful people in the city by Vancouver Magazine.
23 November 2008 - 7:00am
Vancouver Magazine

Planner Confesses Love for Driving

It's hard to give up driving, even when you're professionally committed to sustainable transportation.
20 November 2008 - 2:00pm
The Globe and Mail

With Last Recession Still Fresh in Mind, Hard Times Ahead for Architects

The economic recession will mean tough times for architects, who saw jobs cut by more than 40% during the last slump. Many in the field are wondering whether many architects will survive the current situation.
19 November 2008 - 2:00pm
Guardian

Urban Design After The Age of Depression

Fri, 11/14/2008 - 07:44

Hey, have you heard we’re all screwed?

Last week Penn hosted the “Reimagining Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil” conference. If you were there, or if you read the liveblog of the event, you saw speaker after speaker tell of the doom and gloom facing the planet. Climate change! Carbon emissions! Decaying infrastructure! Nine billion people! In the words of the classical philosopher Shawn Carter, we got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one.

Frankly, it’s all a little depressing.

Obama Administration to Create Office of Urban Policy

When President-elect Obama takes office in January, he says, an Office of Urban Policy will be established, and a Director of Urban Policy will be in place to "coordinate all federal urban programs."
12 November 2008 - 2:00pm
The Washington Post

This Couldn’t Have Happened at a Better Time

Wed, 11/05/2008 - 18:06

The United States has been reborn. The election of Barack Obama has put – or reintroduced – the United States to the world stage as a beacon of hope for all people. We have proven that we believe and embody the ideals of equality and equal opportunity and that these ideals are the right of every citizen and not just a few. More importantly, this election is a ray of hope for our nation. We advanced the fight against racism to elect the first black president of the United States. Barack Obama’s election also gives hope to Americans as we witness and feel the stinging affects of the economic and housing crises, the energy crisis and two wars.

Skills in Planning: The Time vs. Quality Opportunity Curve

Sat, 11/01/2008 - 06:49
Recently I’ve been writing about skills that planners need—the findings from surveys of employers and the key role or writing in the planning skill set. Skills like writing, graphics, data analysis, and the ability to listen are obviously important. As Ethan Seltzer and Connie Ozawa’s 2002 survey found, however, several more general skills are also key. I reported these in an earlier blog and they include: working well with the public and with colleagues, being a self-starter, being able to finish work on time and on budget, and understanding public needs.

Water City Design: Vancouver

Fri, 10/31/2008 - 16:26

Since arriving in Vancouver, I've realized that we are part of a "peer group" of international water cities. Through waterfront design conferences where the same cities seem to get invited time and time again, or through deeper and more interactive collegial opportunities for shared learning such as summits or study trips, these global water cities are taking every opportunity to learn from each other's successes and failures around water-edge planning and design. 

Call for More Minority Architects

Reportedly, only 1.5% of architects are minorities--but while current black architects gain more respect, it is a good time to reach out to minority youth who might also want to go into architecture.
29 October 2008 - 11:00am
The Boston Herald

Obama, the 'Tin-Cup Urbanist'

If history is any indicator, Senator Obama's presidential plans to pump more federal money into fixing cities' problems are futile and wasteful, according to Steven Malanga.
29 October 2008 - 7:00am
City Journal
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