Texas

Austin's artists, arts organizations, and creative businesses contribute to the vibrancy, help define the identity, and sustain and grow the city's diverse cultures, especially in the burgeoning Second Street District.

DPZ finished three designs late last week detailing a level of urbanity that promises to make the sprawling 650 square mile City of Houston a more attractive place in the 21st century.

They just wanted to get away from growth and suburban sprawl by moving out to the country, but for residents of the Texas Hill Country, growth and sprawl were not far behind.

Good middle class suburbs aren't sustainable without a vibrant city, and vice versa, argues a recent article in the Houston Chronicle.

Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company is on charrette designing three different sites in Houston, a city well-known for its homogeneous suburban development. Plans include a TOD, sustainability, brownfield redevelopment, and of course walkability.

Plan for 4,000 new homes and two hotels could threaten Galveston, TX, which was hit by the deadliest hurricane in American history.

Often maligned by by most planners and urbanists, the City of Houston, Texas, receives a glowing defense from Joel Kotkin.

"The Unforeseen," a new documentary, takes a thoughtful look at the various interests at stake in the development of sprawling real estate in Austin.

Rather than investing in new downtown development projects and hoping for people to come, Fort Worth, Texas, is trying to attract more residents downtown with street fairs and events, building a customer base for any future development.

How transportation, density, discretionary income, and limited land-use regulation combine to maximize opportunity zones for upward social and economic mobility.

A state's carbon emissions is largely correlated with the source of its electricity -- the more coal power, the larger the carbon footprint, and the lower the electric rates.

The Houston City Council has approved a measure that would grant property tax exemption for owners of buildings assigned protected landmark status in the city. Officials hope the incentive will encourage historic preservation.

Should urban planners take their cues from architects who prefer central control or economists who prefer free markets?

Living up to its reputation as a state who's residents like things big, Texas is home to three of the largest megachurches in the nation.

After initially supporting the city's new mixed-use ordinance, some residents of East Austin asking the city to apply the brakes on adoption of the measure due to concerns about gentrification.

Christof Spieler compares the greater Houston area with a region in Germany and offers three lessons on how to successfully build transit networks connecting a region with multiple urban centers.

The city's 'segundo barrio' -- a historic Mexican-American neighborhood -- is the focus of a major redevelopment effort that opponents say is trying to 'white wash' the community.

Mayors and local officials along the Texas-Mexico border are angry that they were not included in a planning process to create more than 150 miles of fencing along the international border. Officials fear the fences will harm their local economies.

Legislators in Texas are proposing the creation of a commuter rail line running throughout the fast-growing border region near the Rio Grande River. Though the proposal was voted out of the state senate in early April, proponents are pushing forward.

An ambitious $1.5 billion mixed-use project announced recently in Austin, Texas, proposes to anchor a 681-acre development with sound stages and other media-focused infrastructure. Will this project die a slow death like similar efforts before it?