grid

In Defense of the Grid

Paul Knight delivers an impassioned defense of the gridded urban form against its many criticisms -- that its boring, its unnatural, its only use is to maximize profits for developers, etc.

23 January 2012 - 1:00pm

TheGreatAmericanGrid.com

Reviewing the History of New York's Grid

The New York Times' architecture critic, Michael Kimmelman, reviews a new exhibition exploring the history of the city's grid and streets.

4 January 2012 - 6:00am

The New York Times

How Manhattan's Grid Paved the Way to Success

A new exhibit at The Museum of the City of New York calls New York's 1807 master plan "The Greatest Grid." Jon Meacham takes us on a tour of the exhibit with curator Hilary Ballon.

9 December 2011 - 1:00pm

Metro Focus

Getting Off the Water Grid in Seattle

Buildings in Seattle, including a school, are trying to remove themselves from the urban water grid. More could soon follow.

28 April 2011 - 7:00am

The Seattle Times

Solar's Record Year

A new report shows that solar panel installation has increased to record levels in 2010. Throughout the first half of 2010, 339 megawatts of grid-connected solar capacity were installed.

20 October 2010 - 5:00am

Good

Supermodel Sirens on "Sanctuary" Island

Is there an ideal model for a city's circulation, a "supermodel"? Fanis Grammenos reviews a new paper that proposes the use of organic forms first recognized by Christopher Alexander.

9 August 2010 - 9:00am

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Hawaii is an ideal test case for creating an electric car infrastructure because fuel costs are very high and distances are manageable. Charging stations are going up all over the islands with a goal of making it easy to envision driving an EV.

25 July 2010 - 1:00pm

Governing Magazine

America's Grid Diversity

Greater Greater Washington's Daniel Nairn wanted a planning-related poster for his wall. So he created one (admittedly nerdy) poster comparing the various grids of American cities.

3 June 2010 - 6:00am

Greater Greater Washington

The Magic of the Grid

A new book by Hannah Higgins seeks to show that the history of modern society is based on the grid.

18 April 2010 - 5:00am

Metropolis Magazine

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Completing the Grid to Improve Walkability

Grist's David Roberts maps out why his neighborhood is not walkable and how it could be greatly improved with just a little extra infrastructural connectivity.

10 April 2010 - 7:00am

Grist

The Dynamism, and Dysfunction, of Los Angeles

That's where authors Nathan Cherry and Kurt Nagle found their inspiration for their new book about urban form. Grid/Street/Place.

31 January 2010 - 9:00am

The Huffington Post

Goodbee Square: the Quest for a Contemporary Urban Pattern

Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company was hired to turn a greenfield about 50 miles north of New Orleans into a 1,280-unit blend of town and rural living. In the process, they proposed a radical new way of looking at the street grid. Fanis Grammenos explains.

24 August 2009 - 5:00am

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Smart Growth: Claustrophobic, Unsafe, and Bad for Gas Mileage

Rick Harrison argues that smart growth looks good on paper, but in application the density creates a whole host of problems.

17 May 2009 - 1:00pm

New Geography

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Ancient Cities Found in the Amazon

Anthropologists have discovered traces of highly organized and gridded cities in the Amazon rainforest dating back to the 1200s.

31 August 2008 - 1:00pm

National Geographic

Michael Lewyn

Culs-de-Sac and Grids: A Middle Ground (Or Two, Or Three)

Thu, 08/28/2008 - 12:57

Smart growth supporters tend to prefer grid systems to cul-de-sacs, for excellent reasons. A proliferation of cul-de-sacs artificially lengthens walking distances: if streets don’t connect to each other, you might have to walk a mile to go just a few hundred feet. In addition, cul-de-sacs increase traffic congestion by dumping most vehicular traffic on a few major streets. And because biking is less safe on busy, high-traffic streets, bikers benefit from a grid system as well.

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