Architecture

Transamerica Pyramid

The Iconic Transamerica Pyramid: Now the Second Tallest Building in San Francisco

San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid, designed by architect William Pereira, is no longer the tallest building in the city. The city's architecture critic expects it will still be the most iconic building in the city.

October 10, 2016 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Seasteading

The 'Floating City' of the Silicon Valley's Dreams

The country of French Polynesia is on the verge of permitting a floating city, funded by wealthy Silicon Valley interests and sustained by utopian dreams.

October 8, 2016 - Business Insider

Office Park

How Office Parks and Corporate Campuses Evolved

The office park has become a suburban given, disliked by some, but once it represented a utopian vision of work away from the city. Here's a look at how the Silicon Valley model developed, and where it might be going.

October 8, 2016 - SPUR

Google Headquarters

Is the Company Town Back? Sort Of.

Unlike the earlier iteration, today's full-amenity tech campuses provide their well-paid engineers with Millennial-friendly upper middle class comforts. But is that enough?

September 30, 2016 - Architecture Boston

New York Street

How Far Can You Take Complete Streets?

8th Avenue was one of New York’s first "complete streets." Coined in 2003, the term refers to including cars, pedestrians, bikers, and public transit into city thoroughfares instead of prioritizing cars. Today, the trend is growing to other cities.

September 30, 2016 - Doggerel

Moynihan Train Hall

New York Has Plan to Make Room for Penn Station Renovations

With more than 600,000 daily commuters passing through, Penn Station is one of the busiest transit halls in the Western Hemisphere. Finally, there's a plan in place to make necessary repairs without making the commute even more unbearable.

September 28, 2016 - The New York Times

Gehry Fondation Louis Vuitton

Foolish Utopianism in Today's Top Architecture

Reviewing Douglas Murphy's book "Last Futures: Nature, Technology and the End of Architecture," Jonathan Meades lays into the new utopianism of contemporary architecture. Silicon Valley gets portrayed as both foolish and hypocritical.

September 27, 2016 - London Review of Books

Teotihuacán

Friday Eye Candy: Images of the World's Cities Through History

Tour the history of the world's most famous cities.

September 23, 2016 - Business Insider

Modular Housing for Homeless in San Francisco Hits Roadblocks

Lego-type housing construction has attracted the attention of two separate developers as an efficient means to provide housing for the city's large homeless population but has met objections from labor unions and the Mayor's Office.

September 22, 2016 - San Francisco Chronicle

Tokyo

Help Wanted: Architects to Solve the Housing Dilemma

The housing crisis is a tough nut to crack. Obstacles of politics, economics, and design all stand in the way of the amount of quality housing for all levels of income that U.S. cities need. Can architects come to the rescue?

September 21, 2016 - Architectural Record

Galena

The Cute and The Iconic

Many architects would kill to get a building on Architectural Record's list of 125 Top Buildings. But big cities can learn a few things from the landscapes of small-town America too.

September 20, 2016 - Josh Stephens

Spotlighting the Women Shaping Seattle

The Urbanist is publishing a series of articles focusing on the leadership of women is shaping the past, present, and future of Seattle.

September 17, 2016 - The Urbanist

National Museum of African American History and Culture

The National Museum of African American History and Culture Takes Its Rightful Place

The reviews are pouring in for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open on September 24, 2016.

September 16, 2016 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Lucas Oil Stadium

Federal Subsidy for Private Sports Stadiums Since 2000: $3.2 Billion

Are you ready for some football…stadiums to receive massive subsidies from the federal government?

September 12, 2016 - Brookings

Vancouver Chuck Wolfe

A Twitter Feed that Sings About Placemaking

"My twitter stream is alive with the sound of placemaking," writes Chuck Wolfe. While preparing for this week's Placemaking Week in Vancouver, he explains the importance of PPS-led programming and hopes for various panels, proceedings and events.

September 12, 2016 - The Huffington Post

New York

Taking Stock of New York's Changing Skyline Post-9/11

Fear that skyscrapers might be a persistent target of terrorist attacks did not last long beyond the days and months following 9/11. Neither terrorists nor the Great Recession have stopped the city's skyline from continuing to reaching skyward.

September 11, 2016 - The Record

Guggenheim

List: The Top 125 Buildings of the Last 125 Years

The Architectural Record celebrated its 125th anniversary by celebrating the field's most significant accomplishments over the same time period.

September 10, 2016 - Architectural Record

Chicago Spire

Signs of Life From Chicago's Failed Spire Project

Related Midwest, the current developer of the site of Santiago Caltrava's infamously failed Spire project, are finally making progress on the next iteration of plans for the site.

September 9, 2016 - The Architect's Newspaper

About City Gates and Gateways, With a Political Gloss

A year of political obsession with walls along national borders has Chuck Wolfe contemplating city gates of the past and present. Using the foil of proposed border walls, he examines the historic role of city gates, modern gateways, and more.

September 7, 2016 - The Huffington Post

L.A. Live

Theme Park Urbanism

An op-ed rejects a notion of urbanism that would find a home in Disneyland, for a version of urbanism that deploys the best efficiencies and benefits of the built environment.

September 7, 2016 - Gerhard Mayer

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Senior Planner

City of Thousand Oaks

Community Development Director

City of Wisconsin Rapids

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.