Architecture

Data Plus Community: A Winning Formula for Green Infrastructure

These days, Big Data is the topic at hand, but Arup's Vincent Lee says data analysis can only go so far. He uses his work on the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program to illustrate why a "human element" is crucial to finding solutions.

January 22, 2016 - Doggerel

Eastside Gold Line and Los Angeles skyline

What Will the 'Third Los Angeles' Look Like?

Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne describes an L.A. in flux, at once beholden to its postwar image and pushing in a new direction. The city, he says, faces existential questions on a scale unmatched elsewhere in the nation.

January 21, 2016 - The Architect's Newspaper

Brutalist Lines, Wales

A Critique of the Built Environment: How We Built Unhappiness

One writer's view of the modern city goes negative. If our environment affects our happiness, surely we're all suffering from depression.

January 19, 2016 - Adbusters

Tiny House

Are Tiny Houses All They Are Cracked Up To Be?

Maybe not so much, according to an article in the Globe and Mail.

January 16, 2016 - The Globe and Mail

Cautious Optimism in the Wake of COP21

With the historic climate agreement reached in Paris at COP21, what implications will it have on the architecture, engineering and design industries? Doggerel spoke to U.S. Green Building Council Chair-elect Fiona Cousins for her perspective.

January 15, 2016 - Doggerel

NYC's SoHo Gets a 'Noxious' Use

SoHo, a Manhattan neighborhood full of luxury apartments and a median income of $111,000/year, must accept a new facility that includes a garage for sanitation trucks. Why, and how will it test the city's commitment to infrastructure design?

January 14, 2016 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

Alejandro Aravena: First Chilean Architect to Take Home the Pritzker Prize

The awarding of the Pritzker Prize to the 48-year-old Alejandro Aravena sends a strong signal about the architecture world's focus on social responsibility.

January 13, 2016 - Curbed

Economic Extremes Measured by New York City's Skyscrapers

The Washington Post performs a sort of reverse archaeology: looking skyward to the heights of building for a record of the country's economic fortunes.

January 11, 2016 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Seattle

Proposal for West Coast's Tallest Skyscraper Won't Fly in Seattle

Federal regulators might have killed a proposal that would have built the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast in the city of Seattle.

January 4, 2016 - Puget Sound Business Journal

New Year's Eve Fire in Dubai Hotel Casts Doubt on Safety of Mideast High-Rises

The Address Downtown hotel, a 63-story, mixed-use high-rise very close to the world's tallest building, went up in flames on Dec. 31, raising questions about other high-rises that use the same heavy cladding material building on the exterior.

January 4, 2016 - Reuters

Imagining Oceanscrapers

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has released a series of futuristic and amazing drawings that envision what sustainable, floating cities could possibly look like.

January 3, 2016 - Huffpost Science

Office Park

Report: Office Parks Increasingly Obsolete

According to a report prepared by commercial real estate firm Newmark, Grubb, Knight and Frank (NGKF), the office park model has lost the competitive edge. That is, unless it provides access to transit and urban amenities as well as parking.

January 2, 2016 - Streetsblog USA

Audubon Park, New Orleans

'Psychogeography' and Why It Matters for Planners

An unfamiliar title for a familiar collection of concepts, psychogeography examines the good and bad effects of environments on the thoughts and feelings of people.

December 31, 2015 - The Urban Edge

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte Grows Weary of the Bland Cookie-Cutter Apartment Buildings

Designers and architects in Charlotte, North Carolina are asking the city to raise the bar when approving new apartment buildings to prevent more of the repetitive wood-frame design that has swept the city.

December 29, 2015 - The Charlotte Observer

Central Park Aerial

New York City's Skyline Evolves With Tall, Skinny Towers

For better or for worse, the tall, skinny towers that have helped to remake New York’s iconic skyline appear to be growing in popularity among developers.

December 29, 2015 - New York Times

Spotlight on San Francisco's Extremely Green PUC Headquarters

San Francisco's PUC headquarters, "one of the greenest buildings in the nation," cut costs while introducing cutting-edge sustainable technologies to the city.

December 28, 2015 - The Planning Report

7 Finalists Chosen for Obama Presidential Center Design

Now we know who will compete for one of the most coveted design contracts in the country: the presidential library that will bear Barack Obama's name.

December 23, 2015 - Chicago Tribune

Pershing Square

Los Angeles to Redesign Its 'Worst Public Space'

Josh Stephens reports on the Pershing Square Renew Design Challenge, an effort to redo one of the "world's worst squares and plazas." The new Pershing Square may hearken back to the years before its misguided 1992 redesign.

December 22, 2015 - Next City

Paris Trees

Paris Launches EcoDistrict on Train Station Site

After a decade of development, Paris' first EcoDistrict launched this year. Built in place of a disused train station, the district features offices, housing, and amenities built around clean and green principles.

December 21, 2015 - The Global Grid

A Conservationist Turns to the City

Journalist Alex Ulam speaks with Sarene Marshall, director of the Urban Land Institute's Center for Sustainability, about the role conservation is playing in fighting climate change and her role at the agency.

December 18, 2015 - Doggerel

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

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