Art

Colorful murals in freeway underpass in San Diego's Chicano Park.

Opinion: Enhancing Inclusive Development: The Crucial Role of the Creative Class in Urban Planning

How bringing local artists into the development process can foster more vibrant, equitable neighborhoods.

December 11, 2023 - Wells Davis

COVID-19 and Public Health

The Pandemic Era

"We are living in the Covid-19 era, not the Covid-19 crisis," Allan Brandt, a historian of science and medicine at Harvard University, told Gina Kolata of the New York Times last October in a review of past pandemics and what we can learn from them.

February 3, 2022 - The New York Times

George Floyd

The Racial Reckoning in Public Spaces

Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, there was an explosion of anti-racist street art across the country. “When we allow ourselves to release our emotions, oftentimes what is produced out of that is art.”

November 18, 2021 - Shelterforce Magazine

Image of Welcome to Cedar Grove sign

Should Murals Fall Under Sign Ordinances?

A local controversy in New Jersey has residents debating whether a city should interfere with artistic expression on private property.

October 19, 2021 - North Jersey

Sign at Oil City, Louisiana

Friday Eye Candy: Photo Series Captures Abandoned Oil Wells

A photographer documents the 'orphan wells' strewn across northwest Louisiana in a stark reminder of our deep entanglement with fossil fuels.

July 9, 2021 - Places Journal

Los Angeles Arts District

Arts for Community Control: Planning an Arts and Innovation District Without Displacement

Residents use creative engagements to envision an arts and innovation district without displacement in Boston’s Upham’s Corner.

October 6, 2020 - Shelterforce Magazine

Friday Eye Candy: New York City, Minus the Cars and People

Johnny Simon shares the work of artist Marc Yankus, who created a series of images that remove people, cars, and animals from images of New York City.

November 22, 2019 - Quartzy

Art for Economic Development in Rural Communities

The most recent of funding for Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) design workshops includes an example of an arts center in Maine.

October 28, 2019 - Mainebiz

Medellin

The Resilience of Culture

Cultural institutions and heritage sites may contribute to a city’s social cohesion and attract investment.

March 22, 2019 - CityLab

Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Artist of the Planning Department

The Boston area's Metropolitan Area Planning Council has an Artist-in-Residence Program that brings arts to the table as an integral component of the planning process.

February 22, 2019 - Barr Foundation

Stony Island Arts Bank Chicago

Theaster Gates Brings Together Planning and Art to Empower Communities

His work in Chicago has created spaces that protect and celebrate black lives and experience.

December 12, 2018 - Forbes

Seattle, Washington

Friday Eye Candy: Painting to Memorialize Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct

Finding beauty, and questions, in the concrete.

December 7, 2018 - The Seattle Times

Société de transport de Montréal

Subway Cars Become Art Spaces in Montreal

The MR-63 subway car is being retired but, rather than send them to the junk yard, STM is sending them to artists and engineers to repurpose them and put them to work.

March 20, 2018 - Next City

Albuquerque's Recently Opened Bus Rapid Transit Line Sets a New Standard

Overcoming lawsuits and controversy, Albuquerque opened the Albuquerque Rapid Transit to partial service over the holiday weekend.

November 28, 2017 - Albuquerque Journal

Seattle's Weirdest Intersections Make a Fetching Design

One artist capitalized on the quirks of Seattle's street grid.

September 2, 2017 - The Seattle Times

Trump Sign

Pigs Will Not Fly at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago

The city denied an application for an art installation that would have tethered giant golden pigs to a barge on the Chicago River, temporarily interrupting the view of the sign on the infamous Trump sign.

July 29, 2017 - The Architect's Newspaper

Barbes Music

Safe for Now, Brooklyn Music Mecca Sees a Cloudy Future

More than 20 percent of New York's smaller music venues have closed in the past 15 years. Although Brooklyn institution Barbes was recently saved by a crowdfunding campaign, its founder is pessimistic about the future of New York's independent arts.

July 13, 2017 - Soft City

Autonomous Vehicle

Artist Creates 'Trap' For Self-Driving Cars

As an act of resistance, artist James Bridle used salt to draw a set of lines on a road that would, in theory, hold an autonomous vehicle in place.

March 22, 2017 - Vice Creators

Anti-Terrorism

'See Something, Say Something' Train Ads Tweaked in New York

New York trouble adds subversive quotes to the "If You See Something Say Something" signs in the New York Subway.

March 14, 2017 - Hyperallergic

Bee is For Billboard

Artists Find Alternate Uses for Billboards in Los Angeles

With a surplus of unsold billboard spaces dotting Los Angeles, artists are using the empty spaces as canvasses for new forms of public art.

March 10, 2017 - The Art Newspaper

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

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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.