History / Preservation
Google's Next Futuristic Setting: A Giant NASA Hangar in Mountain View
Google buses, Google ferries, and now, a Google hangar.
If You Like Donuts (and Preservation), You'll Like this Story
This is not our first story on preserving a huge donut sign. What makes this one special is that it's as much about Long Beach as it is about preservation. And what makes it ironic is whom they had to fight to keep the donut from being torn down!
Study: New Mexico MainStreet Achieves Dramatic Success
A new study shows evidence of dramatic positive impacts for the New Mexico MainStreet program, a state program working in coordination with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Remnants of Atlanta's Demolished Past
The permanent art collection of the Atlanta BeltLine just added a relic from the city’s past—a thirteen-ton sculpture crafted out of old train tracks—but it's not the only example of repurposed detritus from the city's history of demolition.
Miami Dig ‘One of the Earliest Urban Plans in Eastern North America’
Plans to build “movie theaters, restaurants and a 34-story hotel” overlap with the archaeological site of a 2,000-year-old Tequesta village.
Step Right Up: Play the City Name Game
Nomenclature changes, especially for cities with chronologies spanning centuries and even millennia. Test your knowledge of historic, even ancient, place names.
The Mythical Search for 'Congruity' in the City
In the eighth installment of the Urban Juxtapositions series profiled in Planetizen on January 16, Chuck Wolfe asks if we are using the right language when it comes to densifying urban spaces.
Friday Eye Candy: 40 More Maps That Explain Everything
It's hard to keep up with the endless quest to present the world's knowledge in map form, but luckily we've got Max Fisher as a guide. He's collected 40 more fascinating maps that explain world history, present conditions and future scenarios.
What Can Ancient Cities Teach Modern Urbanites?
These 15 ancient cities can help modern urbanites plan more efficient and sustainable municipalities.
Pullman Historic District in Chicago Considered for National Park Status
Completed in 1880 as a company town by railcar tycoon George Pullman, the 300-acre Pullman Historic District in Chicago could be a beautiful addition to the National Park System.
Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia Subject of Preservation Battle
Developers are seeking allowances to gut the historic Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia to build an eight-screen movie complex.
Slowing the Rush to Sell Historic Post Offices
Outcry over the potential sale of post offices in Berkeley and the Bronx has prompted those areas’ respective Congressional representatives to seek federal legislation to put the brakes on the Postal Service’s rush to sell historic properties.
New Series: In the Urban World, Juxtapositions Matter
In an ongoing series, Urbanism Without Effort author Chuck Wolfe argues the importance of the overlaps, overlays and convergence points that define city life, and emphasizes the importance of reading and interpreting their everyday expression.
Revising Urban History: the Interstate Highway Road Not Taken
From Denver to Syracuse, U.S. cities are looking to heal neighborhoods torn apart by the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Could an alternative way of envisioning and financing such a system provide lessons for the developing world?
Save that Funky Plaza?
Preserving urban landscapes can be just as important as preserving historic buildings. However, saving our design heritage needs to be balanced with the imperative that places effectively meet the functional needs of contemporary cities.
Ancient Cities Were Unsustainable Too
Over the last several decades, researchers have examined how our cities deplete natural resources and change the climate and ecosystems of their surrounding areas. But new evidence shows that such impacts aren't a purely modern phenomenon.
MoMA Decides to Demolish Folk Art Museum
The stay of execution that was granted to the Museum of American Folk Art after protests from architects and preservationists has been lifted. MoMA has announced plans to demolish the celebrated building to accommodate its expansions plans.
Will City Demolish Graves' Pioneering Postmodern Portland Building?
Faced with $95 million in necessary repairs just 32 years after its Michael Graves-designed administrative headquarters was opened, Portland officials are considering razing the nation's first major work of postmodern architecture.
Chicago's Ubiquitous Housing Type Turns 100
As Chicago's population surged in the second decade of the 20th century, one dominant single-family housing type spread across the city. Over the next year the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association will celebrate these distinctive homes.
How to Design a City for Blackouts
During the nightly blackouts designed to protect London from aerial attack during World War II, authorities used white paint as a cheap tool for making the city navigable in the darkness. Could London offer lessons for building resilient cities?
Pagination
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.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association