Land Use
The Top 100 Public Spaces in the U.S. and Canada
The results of our crowdsourcing project, in collaboration with the Project for Public Spaces, reveal not an objective Top 100 but instead a handful of communities passionate about their own local public spaces.
Facebook Building Server Farm in Sweden for Passive Cooling
Internet server farms suck up enormous amounts of energy keeping all those mainframes cool. So Facebook has announced it will build in Northern Sweden and use only the natural air to chill their facility.
D.C. Programs Hope To Revitalize A Dying Waterway
Pollution has caused the Anacostia River to suffer, writes Ryan Donahue, and efforts to revitalize the area were put on hold just as the recession began. Since then, the District has implemented programs to help restore this neglected area.
Industrializing India
The government plans to build 24 industrial cities that stretch from New Delhi to Mumbai for a corridor bigger in land size than Japan, write Matthias Williams and Lyndee Prickitt for Reuters.
The Fizzled Vision for a "Megapolitan" Sun Belt
Only 7 short years ago, planners in the Phoenix/Tuscon area were envisioning a region of 10 million people. Today they're scaling back the predictions, but still have hope for a recovery.
DC Planning Office Seeks To Restrict Georgetown Enrollment
Washington DC's office of planning will begin restricting Georgetown's enrollment if the university does not manage to provide housing for 100% of its undergraduates by 2016.
Cities Aren't About Happiness
Elizabeth Farrelly suggests that happiness is only a possible side benefit to the true goal of cities, which is "...getting stuff done and, more importantly, generating the ideas that get stuff done."
How to Build a Better Park
New Urbanist Peter Katz presents his guidelines for creating a popular urban park. First published in 1995, Katz's ideas still hold up.
Jan Gehl on the Past 40 Years of Urbanism
Famed urbanist Jan Gehl looks back at the writing and thought on how people use the urban environment -- including his own -- over the past 40 years.
Touring the Suburban Environment
Jason Griffiths and Alex Gino set out in 2002 to document the unremarkable character of the American suburbs. 22,382 miles and 2,593 photographs later, they concluded that suburbia "is difficult to define."
Improving The Gentrification Process
Kaid Benfield argues that continues revitalization of inner city neighborhoods is essential to achieving an equitable civil society, sustainable patterns of growth and maintaining a tax base to fund civic improvements.
Urban Pioneers Attracted to Detroit
The Economist paints a gloomy picture of an ailing Detroit, but also says there is hope in the form of urban pioneers attracted by the affordability of space.
A Call to Revamp POPS
New York City's privately-owned public spaces are back on the radar since protesters took over Zuccotti Park last month. Remnants of good-intentioned zoning that didn't quite do enough, the spaces are often far more lackluster than occupier-worthy.
$2 Congestion Fee When Parking In Downtown Chicago
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to use congestion fees to help fund a new rail station and the city's first bus rapid transit line. Anyone parking in a downtown lot will be required to pay an additional $2 on top of the existing parking fee.
How Would You Change the Zoning Code?
At last week's Municipal Art Society Summmit in New York City, one panel of experts attempted to answer just that. Neither overbearing zoning rules, contextual zoning, or the current environmental review process was left untouched.
New Planning Law Will Protect Istanbul's Historic Views And Lines Of Sight
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has announced a plan aimed at protecting the city's views by preventing construction of tall buildings in lines of sight and preventing illegal building construction.
Western Planners Swoop In To Attack Sao Paulo's 'Worm'
The Big Worm is a 2.2 mile elevated highway carving its way through South America's biggest city, carrying 80,000 vehicles a day past the bedroom windows of once elegant art deco apartment buildings.
Las Vegas Learns To Mow Its Own Lawn
Nevada has gone from having the lowest unemployment in the US in 2006 at 4% to the highest now at 13.4%. Once again Las Vegas is proving to be a reflection of the country's wider problems, where the top end of the market never dropped out.
Pedestrian Safety Plan? Ban Pedestrians. Bikes Too.
The Town of Hull, Wisconsin's public safety committee is considering a new ordinance that bans bicyclists and pedestrians from some county roads - unless they get special permission.
To Make Great Places, Mix Well
Carl F. Meyer of Perkins+Will presents three things he strives for to make vibrant public spaces, and all three involve mixing it up.
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
