City Models

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines as an Urban Planning Tool

Computer simulations continue to play a novel and important role in urban planning, especially in finding new ways to engage the public and add some fun to the process of planning for the future of cities.

August 10, 2020 - parCitypatory

Did Augustus Really Transform Rome into a 'City of Marble'?

Caeser Augustus famously boasted "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble." An architectural historian and urban designer at UCLA now has the model to prove the veracity of the claim.

March 7, 2015 - UCLA Newsroom

22 Model Cities

WebUrbanist collects pictures of city miniatures built by planning departments, for tourist attractions, or by obsessives who go into painstaking detail to recreate Chicago, Moscow, or Tokyo.

March 5, 2010 - WebUrbanist

Utopias in Miniature

As Germany's elections near, the makers of 'Miniature Wonderland' invite political parties to use their scale models to show the public what their utopia would look like.

August 27, 2009 - Speigel International

Building Communities With Legos and Plastic Bottles

GOOD Magazine follows planner James Rojas as he engages a community in the act of planning in his own particular fashion, using everyday objects and building blocks.

August 17, 2009 - GOOD Magazine

How to Build Chicago

This video from WTTW looks at a huge new model of the city of Chicago, and shows how it was built.

August 6, 2009 - WTTW

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.