Public Parks

Boston's Big Dig was supposed to result in a series of glorious, connected public spaces. Two years after the project's completion, the state is finally making the connections a reality.

November 24, 2009 - The Boston Globe

New York City is developing a handful of new parks on industrial lands and otherwise underused spaces. Urban Omnibus talks with Adrian Benepe, the city's commissioner of parks and recreation about the new projects.

September 21, 2009 - Urban Omnibus

A historic airfield in Berlin will be transformed over the next year into the city's largest park.

September 2, 2009 - The Local

Outside Magazine ranks the top 10 U.S. cities for people who like to exercise and be outdoors.

August 1, 2009 - Outside

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has said he wants to bring park programs back into the lives of urban dwellers. This piece argues that a good place for him to start is one of the few urban national parks at St. Louis' Gateway Arch.

July 13, 2009 - STL Today

Managing Editor Tim Halbur reviews The High Line, the much-lauded new linear park in Manhattan.

July 2, 2009 - Tim Halbur

Chicago's river has often played second fiddle to its lakefront. A new riverwalk hopes to change that.

June 29, 2009 - Chicago Tribune

Dense Cairo has few sanctioned public spaces. So residents make do wherever they can.

June 21, 2009 - The New York Times

The Sundance Channel has produced a series of short films profiling the landscape architects, officials, activists, writers, and Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon about how the High Line park came to be.

May 29, 2009 - Sundance Channel

This post from Governing looks at the long planning process of the Orange County Great Park, a 1,347 acre public park that's been in the works for 7 years. Comprehensive design plans were recently approved and construction is set to begin.

May 23, 2009 - Governing

Researchers in Scotland have concluded that areas without parks and green space have an increased risk of death and illness.

November 9, 2008 - BBC News

A supreme court judge in British Columbia has ruled that homeless people can legally camp on public property such as parks.

October 18, 2008 - The Province

Viviana Franco became a planner so she could reform a park 100 ft. from her childhood home in Hawthorne, CA. But her quest has become mired in local politics as the site was sold in a local auction.

August 31, 2008 - The Los Angeles Times

This article from LA Weekly looks at L.A.'s parks deficit and what some are trying to do to address it.

July 21, 2008 - LA Weekly

Architect David Rockwell has some new ideas about what makes a good public playground. With movable, buildable foam blocks, his experimental playground in Brooklyn gets kids actively and creatively involved in their play.

July 15, 2008 - The New York Times

Stakeholders in Austin debate the future of a public golf course in the center of town while the University of Texas, owner of the land, debates whether to seek greater profits off the land. Neighbors champion the course as vital open space.

July 9, 2008 - Austin American-Statesman

Landscape architecture firm dlandstudio is taking the stench out of the Gowanus Canal by building a new public park that is beautiful as well as functional.

July 7, 2008 - The New York Sun

This commentary from the Los Angeles Times calls for creation of a central park for the city, made by putting a "cap" over a section of freeway.

June 21, 2008 - The Los Angeles Times

Cairo's first new green space in more than 100 years has opened -- on top of a 500-year old garbage dump.

May 7, 2008 - NPR

A former bus and rail yard in park-poor South Los Angeles will be converted into an "urban wetland park".

April 27, 2008 - The Los Angeles Times