Europe
No Ceremony, Little Love for New Venice Canal Bridge
The first new bridge over Venice's Grand Canal in 70 years will open next month, but no no fanfare and without ceremony. Locals are calling off events to protest the bridge's many delays and cost overruns.
The Times
Planning for Avalanches
Technologie Alpine de Sécurité creates gas-powered avalanche control systems. The blog Pruned shows pictures of the system installed at Val Thorens, France.
Pruned
All Roads Lead to Rome: The Theme Park
Faced with a significant decline in tourism, Rome's mayor dreams of building a theme park right next to the real thing depicting life in ancient Rome.
Telegraph U.K.
A New Neighborhood From Scratch in the Netherlands
A new district rises on the decommissioned Ypenburg Nato airfield in the Netherlands. Master planners Rapp & Rapp worked with other architects and developers to create a cohesive whole with slight variations, a “conditioning of difference."
bd
Rome's Battle With Contemporary Architecture
The only modern building in Rome's historic center, a Richard Meier designed museum, is considered offensive enough that it may not last in its current form.
Reuters
Vacation Home Shareholding
The American trend of "fractional ownership", a real estate concept in which a number of investors own fractions of vacation homes, has moved to Europe.
International Herald Tribune
Budapest Railroad Run By 10 Yr. Olds
Originally a Stalinist program called 'Young Pioneers', the tradition of the Children's Railway is being revived in Budapest.
Wall St. Journal
Massive Wall to Dry Flooded Kingdom
In order to save an ancient kingdom that was flooded by a reservoir in the 1950s, officials in Bulgaria will build a €100 million wall around the submerged monument.
Turkish Weekly
Commuting By Bike (Spandex Not Required)
A Vancouver company is importing Dutch city bicycles, and the relaxed commuting lifestyle that goes with them.
The Vancouver Sun
Community Energy Planning Paying Off in Germany
A small town in Germany is demonstrating that a strategy of distributed, renewable and locally-controlled energy production can not only be Earth-friendly but profitable.
Victoria Times-Colonist
An Architect-Designed Mega Plan in Istanbul
One of the world's largest urban renewal projects is about to break ground in the Kartal area of Istanbul, and every aspect of the new neighborhood is designed by a star architect. The Wall St. Journal reports on the new "city-building industry".
Wall St. Journal
Paris 'Beach' Opens
The annual transformation of riverbanks to beaches has begun in Paris, where the River Seine becomes a widely visited outdoor public space known as Paris Plages.
The Guardian
As Venues Sit Unused, Athens Feels Olympic Remorse
Four years after it hosted the Summer Olympics, Athens is questioning whether the $15 billion investment in venues that now largely sit unused was really worth it.
The Christian Science Monitor
German NIMBYs Oppose Mosques
Incidents of violence and vandalism highlight a rising tide of local opposition to teh construction of new mosques in Germany.
Der Spiegel
Irish Alcatraz?
Belfast developers plan on turning a Victorian-era jail into a tourist attraction, hotel, and art gallery. Her Majesty’s Prison Belfast closed in 1996, and is a symbol of The Troubles, the long struggle in Northern Ireland for Irish independence.
Global Atlanta
Paris Considers Ditching Building Height Limits
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë has proposed abandoning the city's long-held building height restriction of 37 meters, citing the city's need to grow.
Telegraph
Prague Hopes to Clean Up its Public Space
With tourist season in full effect, the Czech city of Prague is hoping to clean up its notoriously dirty streets with a new ban on littering and urinating in public places.
Ceske Noviny
Town Removes All Traffic Signals
Bohmte, Germany is following the lead of an EU program called "Shared Space", which recommends that cities remove traffic signals and find ways to encourage cars to share their space with pedestrians and bicyclists.
ABC News
Paris Plans Green Car Sharing System
Following on the success of its bike-sharing system, Paris is planning to unveil a citywide green car-sharing system.
The Guardian
An Italian View of U.S. Planning
An Italian city planner visits San Diego to analyze sprawl-fighting techniques first-hand.
The San Diego Union-Tribune





















