Landscape Architecture
<p>Urban projects have resulted in the paving over of significant chunks of parkland in Melbourne, Australia -- land set aside more than 150 years ago to act as the city's lungs.</p>
The Age
<p>A team of researchers has shown that in urban landscapes -- such as in the cracks of sidewalks -- plant species must evolve their reproduction habits to stay alive.</p>
MSNBC
<p>With a focus on public spaces, Flint, Michigan, is looking to revitalize itself.</p>
Making Places
<p>The Project for Public Spaces offers this checklist to help determine if your city is a "great" city.</p>
Making Places
<p>Nearly 100 million American households have tended a garden or lawn since 2005, a significant increase from years past. According to estimates, much of the rise is due to younger adults getting out in their gardens.</p>
Publishers Weekly
<p>A coalition of civil rights groups are concerned that the plans to redesign Washington D.C.'s National Mall will spatially restrict free speech and public protests, a charge the National Park Service rejects.</p>
AlterNet
<p>Creating beautiful public spaces is crucial to improving sense of community, according to urban designers looking to revitalize the Mississippi town of Tupelo.</p>
Daily Journal (Northeast Mississippi)
<p>Palm Springs -- once the epicenter of Spring Break -- is criticized by many for lacking public spaces. Now, a collection of architects, planners and urban designers have put out some ideas for improving the city.</p>
The Desert Sun
<p>After the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the Beltline project could not use school funds from a tax-increment financing funding source, what next?</p>
Creative Loafing
<p>This post from <em>Pruned</em> looks at a proposal to turn a contaminated reservoir into a "bioremediating ecological machine".</p>
Pruned
<p>A group of researchers is using mapping and satellite data to help cities quantify their tree canopy cover -- a move that is spurring efforts to increase tree planting in cities across the country.</p>
Associated Press
<p>Mark Ames, author of "Going Postal", wonders if American gun tragedies like last week's massacre at Northern Illinois University might be at least partially explained by the bleak physical built environments of middle America.</p>
AlterNet
<p>Public art in the United Kingdom is coming under increasing scrutiny as artists and the public grapple with the question of who should be memorialized in statue form: significant historical figures or ordinary people?</p>
BBC
<p>Scientists are proposing a plan to buffer the Gulf Coast from the brunt of hurricanes by engineering more than 1000 square kilometers of new wetlands along the coast.</p>
New Scientist
<p>Prominent museum heads in the United Kingdom are calling for greater discretion in the commissioning of public art pieces. They say the latest batch of sculptures are "monsters".</p>
The Times (London)
<p>This article looks at how landscape architects have combined green roofs, public spaces and affordable housing to address the chronic homelessness in San Francisco's infamous Tenderloin district.</p>
Landscape Architecture
<p>New York City parks officials have announced plans to generate extra revenue by selling off naming rights for some of the city's public park attractions.</p>
New York Post
<p>If 'peak oil' makes oil-intensive industrial agriculture economically unfeasible, will suburbanites need to turn their lawns into farming plots?</p>
Common Dreams
<p>The city of Pasadena, California has enlisted a groups of more than 100 volunteers to walks and evaluate its streets to rate the city's walkability.</p>
Pasadena Star-News
Blog post
Like many world cities, Vancouver has a growing discussion on the issue of "iconic" architecture, one that I've been a part of and encouraging. This despite the fact that, like many urbanists, the word iconic actually makes me nervous.
