History / Preservation

A 21st Century Planning Case Study: Buffalo, New York
Frederick Law Olmsted called Buffalo the best planned city in the United States, but in the second half of the 20th century it transitioned into a prototypical "Rust Belt" city.

Second Wave or Second Peak?
The terminology of the coronavirus pandemic isn't applied consistently, particularly when dealing with areas seeing a resurgence of infection after states have relaxed social distancing restrictions. The World Health Organization added some clarity.
In Planning, Reality Can Be Worse Than Fiction
The Showtime Series Penny Dreadful portrays a bleak vision of 1940s Los Angeles. But, unencumbered by regulations and zoning laws, it also displays what great urban neighborhoods can look like.

Housing Costs More Than a Matter of Supply and Demand
Does new market rate housing increase the average cost of housing, by inducing demand, or does it help stabilize the housing market by offering new supply? The debate continues in San Francisco.

Design in the Time of Cholera: How Pandemics Reshaped the Built Environment
Some of the most beloved public parks and essential advances in public sanitation can be traced back to their roots in the Cholera outbreaks in the 1800s.

Social Distancing Is Not a Novel Concept
Initial research on social isolation as a method to combat contagious disease included a high-school science fair project modeling social networks. Doctors learned that the spread of disease could be decelerated by disrupting these networks.

Report: Expect to Live with Two More Years of Social Distancing
As a majority of states relax stay-at-home restrictions, a prestigious team of experts from the University of Minnesota, Harvard and Tulane universities warns that the coronavirus will likely last 18 to 24 more months, returning in successive waves.

Nostalgia for Detroit's Public Transit History
Five historic projects encapsulate a transit-oriented version of Southeastern Michigan that almost could have been.
Communicative Arts Academy: Rebuilding Compton for Artists and Community Life
In the 1960s-70s, a group of artists called the Compton Communicative Arts Academy renovated buildings across Compton and transformed vernacular, underutilized structures into venues for and objects of art.

How the Post-Pandemic Future Could Resemble the Pre-Pandemic Future
Response to coronavirus challenges in urban settings will likely be a continuity of work started decades ago.

Economic Argument for Historic Preservation in L.A.: Older Housing is Affordable Housing
Donovan Rypkema and Adrian Scott Fine highlight myth-busting findings on the impacts of historic preservation overlay zones (HPOZs) on affordability, density, diversity, and economic resilience of neighborhoods across Los Angeles.

Experiencing Hyperdensity in Old Delhi
A tourist visit through the oldest, densest part of Delhi, India, reveals the chaos and beauty of hyperdensity.

The Architectural Glory of Historic Warehouses
Chicago warehouses were once built with architectural flair, but today’s industrial structures don’t come close.

Anchorage Confronts History of Housing Discrimination
Urban growth in Anchorage was tied to restrictive covenants forbidding the sale of property to minorities.

Elevating Black Voices in the Planning Canon
The traditional narratives about the history of planning fail to note the role of Black urbanists, as well as the effect of planning policies on Black Americans.

Opinion: Historic Preservation's Climate Problem Reveals its Class Problem
A strongly worded opinion piece calls out historic preservation as a tool of the affluent urban elite.

The Urban Landscape New York City Lost in the 2010s
Over the last decade, many historic buildings and cultural institutions throughout New York City have disappeared. The result has been the transformation of neighborhoods and the city’s character.

On Progressive Impotence and an Obsolete Penn Station
In a deep dive into the sad state of the nation's busiest transit hub, Marc J. Dunkelman raises a dispiriting question. In their zeal to ward off future Robert Moseses, have progressives crippled government's power to carry out its job?

Another Record Year for Demolitions in 2019
The headline about Philadelphia demolitions looks pretty similar to one in 2018.

Retail Apocalypse Blazes New Trails
The demise of a beloved outdoors gear chain in Southern California suggests that no store is safe in America's high-priced cities.
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.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
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