Education & Careers

Lessons from Don Draper (for Planners)
Aside from inspiring a classy wardrobe, what can urban planners learn from characters like Don Draper and Peggy Olson? What cues should urban planners and policy makers take from the field of advertising to help pitch planning ideas?

StreetSeen: A New Tool for Understanding the Built Environment
Want an easy to use public engagement tool that helps you to understand the visual preferences of the public? StreetSeen (http://streetseen.osu.edu), a free online tool allows planners and others to simply construct and deploy visual surveys.
APA Announces 2014 National Planning Award Winners
The American Planning Association has announced the 18 Excellence Award and 10 Achievement Award winners for 2014. The selections for the Planning Pioneer and Planning Landmark awards are likely to generate some discussion.

How to Create a Mobile Enabled Plan
People are increasingly accessing information via mobile devices, so why not provide mobile enabled plans? Learn how to create a mobile ready plan that is readable in Kindle or iBooks at low to no-cost.
Greetings from TRB!
Each January Washington DC hosts a huge gathering of the transportation planning tribe. What do we do? Read about it here.
Could Legos Alleviate Architecture's Gender Imbalance?
With women accounting for only 20% of registered architects in Britain and 8% of professional engineers, the incoming president of the Royal Academy of Engineering has a compelling idea to encourage more women to enter the fields: give girls legos.

The Best Planning Apps for 2014
We have compiled a list of mobile apps to support planning, as part of our annual update. Learn about exciting new ways to explore cities and enhance planning via mobile apps. Please feel free to add your own favorites.
Planetizen's Most Popular Pieces of 2013
We're looking forward to another stimulating year of news, commentary, and professional development. But before the calendar turns to 2014, we wanted to take a look back at our most popular blog posts, exclusive articles, and news items from 2013.
A Lesson in Translating Archibabble
Much of the language used by globetrotting architects and academics to describe their projects and concepts is indecipherable to those not up to speed on biomorphology or french philosophy. BD offers a helpful guide for speaking architect.

How Important is Your Graduate Planning Specialty or Concentration?
As students plan their spring semester courses and make early plans for the summer, they often wonder how to choose a planning specialization or concentration. They ask how important the concentration is for their future career as a planner.
New Organization Seeks to End Exploitation of Architects
The architectural profession is notorious for overworking and under-compensating its workforce. A new organization seeks to empower architects by promoting the value of their work and fighting for better working conditions.

Holiday Gift Ideas for the Plan-Nerd
Holiday gift recommendations for your urban planning geek friend or family member (or yourself) from L.A.'s ultra-plan-nerd, Clement Lau.

The 100 "Best" Books on City-Making Ever Written?
After looking over his extensive library of books on urbanism, Brent Toderian selects the 100 best books on city-making that he's collected and read over the years.
Texas to Require Fingerprinting of Architects
Already one of only two states to require criminal background checks of registered architects, the Texas legislature has gone one step further by requiring them to be fingerprinted. It's the first state in the country to embrace the practice.
Ranking Architects' Favorite Architects
BD is out with its annual list of the architecture firms most admired by their colleagues. A number of large commercial practices joined avant-garde firms in the top 10.
A Look at the Remarkable Career of Laurie Olin
The tenth entry in the Cultural Landscape Foundation's award-winning Pioneers of American Landscape Design series features the renowned landscape architect Laurie Olin, recent winner of the National Medal of the Arts.
A Call for Planning to Better Address Social Issues
Does planning possess the power to address the issues people care about? Kate Henderson, with the UK's Town and Country Planning Association, discusses the results of a year-long study into how planning can help tackle poverty and exclusion.

Kanye West Delivers Desktop Pep Talk at Harvard GSD
Musician and aspiring designer Kanye West stopped by Harvard’s Graduate School of Design for a surprise visit Sunday evening and delivered what Jenny Xie calls a manifesto on architecture.
JPER’s Top Cited Articles: The Debate over Communicative Planning
JPER has existed since the early 1980s but 4 of the top 5 articles date from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s and focus on the theory behind collaboration and communication in planning.
Planning May Pay Decently, But Is It Low-Stress?
Urban and Regional Planning has landed a spot on Business Insider's list of the "15 High-Paying Jobs For People Who Don't Like Stress", a claim we're sure some of you may take issue with.
Pagination
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.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont