History / Preservation
Boston Neighborhood Transforms Church into Housing
How grassroots organizers beat out commercial bidders, and overcame zoning hurdles to redevelop Catholic church into affordable housing.
Feds to Perform Ecological Studies on BLM Land
Tasked with managing millions of acres of public lands, the federal Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to perform detailed ecological studies of some of its most notable properties.
Collage of the Past and Present
Through a photo collage of historical and current pictures, artist Alden Cudanin documents the changes that have happened in Toronto Since the early 1900s.
Church to Move 1,000 Miles For New Congregation
Mary Our Queen Catholic Church in Norcross, Georgia needs a new building. Rather than build a modern box, they're moving a historic basilica all the way from Buffalo, New York, calling their strategy "preservation by relocation".
22 Model Cities
WebUrbanist collects pictures of city miniatures built by planning departments, for tourist attractions, or by obsessives who go into painstaking detail to recreate Chicago, Moscow, or Tokyo.
Earthquakes Threaten Many Third-World Cities
Port-au-Prince is not an outlier. Many other major cities in developing and poor countries lie along earthquake fault lines and are in danger of destruction.
Moe Steps Down
Longtime president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Richard Moe is retiring after radically changing the Trust's direction. Will the next president continue Moe's vision?
Indonesia Considers New Capital as Jakarta Sinks
As sea levels rise and flooding threatens the foundations on which the city was built, the Indonesian capital of Jakarta is literally sinking into the sea. Now the president is pushing a plan to find a new home for the country's capital.
The Historic Costs of Going Green
Preservationists say a new California law that requires new construction to meet stringent green building standards could encourage demolition of historically significant buildings.
Dropping Bombs and Dropping Parking Lots
This post from The Overhead Wire looks at the impact of parking lot sprawl in American downtowns -- and finds a striking resemblance between those downtowns and bomb-ravaged cities from World War Two.
Hollywood Sign Edited in the Name of Preservation
With the threat of its sale bringing the prospect of hilltop housing development behind the city's most well-known icon, the hills near the Hollywood sign in L.A. have spurred local activists to drape a new anti-development message over the sign.
Preservation Win as Century Plaza Hotel Saved
The developers that purchased L.A.'s Century Plaza Hotel, a swooping mid-century building, planned to raze it and start over. Preservationists fought back, and a new plan has been announced to preserve a significant section of it.
Historic Preservation Programs Nixed By Obama
The Obama administration has cancelled two Federal programs - Save America's Treasures and Preserve America - that were responsible for the restoration of nearly 900 historic structures over the past 10 years.
Reinventing Mobility in Detroit
PBS documents Detroit's attempts to overcome its history as "the Motor City" to create new ways of getting people around. Transit advocates play a big part in this preview, which includes renderings of projected transit options.
Tiki Preservation
The Royal Hawaiian Estates, a tiki-themed apartment complex built in 1962, was designated an historic district by the City of Palm Springs.
Reviving the National Mall
After receiving thousands of comments and suggestions, planners in Washington D.C. have narrowed options down to five plans for remaking the National Mall.
Atmospheric Cities
Two interesting video submissions this week, one an atmospheric tour of Vancouver, BC and one of San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake.
Notes on Structural Change: Redefining the Problem of Weak Markets
The foreclosure crisis spreading across America has burdened cities and neighborhoods with value-draining vacancies and abandoned properties. To counteract the economic havoc they've caused, planners and policymakers must focus on restoring confidence in the market, according to neighborhood planning consultants Charles Buki and Elizabeth Humphrey Schilling.
Carbon Emission Standards vs. Historic Preservation
In the U.K., new carbon emission standards may mean that great numbers of buildings from the 1960s and 70s will need to be demolished.
Conservation Easements on the Rise
This piece from Miller-McCune looks at the conservation easement and explains how the legal device is being used to protect land and prevent sprawl.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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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
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)