Bilbao

Howard Blackson looks at new tools for fixing cities, including form-based codes, plans for complexities (neighborhoods, urban patterns, architecture), classification of character, and funding systems.

The "Bilbao Effect" is the apotheosis of the notion that a struggling post industrial city can be regenerated through set-piece art and design. But Frank Gehry, the architect of the Guggenheim, suspects the gallery was only part of a larger gestalt.

Bilbao is known for the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum. But there's a living city behind that iconic architecture, and local officials are trying to prove it with a new public park.

The age of iconic architecture may be ending. The recession is a major factor, but much of the shift may be due to changing perceptions about what architecture is supposed to do for a place, according to critic Robert Campbell.