History / Preservation

How Tulsa Beat Flooding Without Saying 'Climate Change'
An oil town in a red state proves we don't have to talk about climate change to adapt to it.

Electric Vehicle Sales Would Take a Hit With GOP's Tax Cut
The House GOP tax plan, which Trump wanted to name the "Cut, Cut, Cut" bill, was intended to cut taxes, but it's also cutting credits, like the federal $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. How much would its elimination affect EV sales?

David Simon on the Uniqueness of New York
The creator of "The Wire" talks to CityLab about "The Deuce," New York City in the 1970s, and how strategies for one town won't always work for another.

Friday Eye Candy: Highly Detailed Cold War Era Soviet Maps of the U.S.
A new book sheds light on maps created by cartographers in the Soviet Union that dove into remarkable detail about buildings, transportation networks, and other infrastructure in cities across the United States and around the world.

13 Cultural Landscapes At Risk of Disappearing
Threats facing major U.S. cultural sites today include development, drilling, and the federal government.

Adaptive Brew-Use
The Associated Press explores the trend of churches rebuilt as breweries.
Blight Is a Bad Word
What makes one building worth saving and another worth destroying? Strong Towns' Rachel Quednau explores the line between destruction and preservation.

The 100 Most Influential Urbanists
These are the people that have had the most influence on the places and environments that we call home.

The PlanIt Podcast Explains Historic Preservation
More and more communities are including historic preservation in plan efforts. But what is Historic Preservation and what does planning for it mean? In this episode, John Smoley explains.

Salvaging Historic Building Materials for Job Creation and Environmental Benefit
A proposed ordinance would save derelict buildings from the wrecking ball, and send them to the salvage yard instead.

Planning Utopia: Revisiting Thomas More's Classic
In this second installment of a three-part review of Thomas More's Utopia in its 500th anniversary year, L.A. area planner Jodie Sackett looks at More's ideas for planning a Utopian city. Do More's ideas have current relevance?

National or Regional? Finding American Identity in Architecture
In an extended discussion, Keith Eggener examines what it means for a work of architecture to be "naturally" American, and why looking at modern American styles through an intensively regional lens may be unhelpful.

Behind Some of History's Most Powerful Urban Innovations
A series of pieces from Sidewalk Labs examines the history and context of vital urban "innovations." So far, elevators, sewers, and traffic signals have been covered.
Who Will Take This Historic Bridge Off Washington State's Hands?
Washington is seeking takers on a disused 92-year-old bridge, eligible for the National Register for Historic Places. This isn't an isolated phenomenon.

The Pros and Cons of Concrete
A versatile building material with a long pedigree, concrete also has associations with ugliness and totalitarianism. Its reinforced variety, widely used today, can conceal a costly flaw.

Vote for the Most Influential Urbanists
After accepting nearly 200 nominees for consideration, we're asking for votes to determine the "Most Influential Urbanists" of all time.

5 Beloved Architectural Creations Lost to History
If you could bring one building back from the wrecking balls of the past, what would it be?

South Bend Has Big Innovation District Plans
Public Radio International (PRI) surveys the keys to an ambitious plan to restore the industrial "temples" of South Bend, Indiana.

Do Confederate Statues Belong in Public Spaces?
In the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, resulting from the gathering of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, American cities are rethinking whether statues honoring the heroes of the Confederacy belong in public spaces.

Putting Teeth into the California Housing Accountability Act
A 35-year-old law is not living up to its moniker, the 'anti-NIMBY law'. A bill co-sponsored by a group associated with the YIMBY movement would fine cities $10,000 per housing unit if they fail to comply with the law.
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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions