Land Use

Decentralizing Decisionmaking in New Orleans' Recovery

Various plans and strategies have been crafted over the years to try to help New Orleans recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. While early plans took a stronger stance, the city is now taking a less heavy-handed approach.

May 2, 2011 - Architectural Record

Suburban Growth Still Leads, But in Changing Ways

Suburban population growth in the U.S. is still on the rise, but new trends show that those suburbs closest to urban cores and those farthest away are driving the growth.

May 2, 2011 - USA Today

A Philosophical Basis for New Urbanism

Raymond Hain says the arguments in favor of New Urbanism are often "murky", and design is in the eye of the beholder. but is there a deeper, philosophical foundation for New Urbanism?

May 2, 2011 - The Witherspoon Institute

Improvisation Under the Freeway

A spectacular series of recent photos from Seattle's Colonnade Park built beneath highway I-5 tell the story of adapted urban space.

May 2, 2011 - Free Association Design

Aerial Photos Show Chicago's Growth

Lawrence Okrent is a Chicago planning and zoning consultant and also a photographer. Recreating a series of aerial photographs from 1985, he shows the remarkable growth of the city over the last 15 years.

April 30, 2011 - The Chicago Tribune

Abandoned Power Plants, Amusement Parks, and More

Device Magazine features photos of places with deserted technology like the former Soviet nuclear submarine base in Balaklava, Ukraine and a ship graveyard in Lisbon, Portugal.

April 29, 2011 - Device Magazine

Developer: I've Walked Away From Projects Because of Parking Minimums

Why is it so hard to build in New York City? Why are rents so expensive? It's partly because parking requirement are so onerous that developers are doing everything they can to avoid them, writes Noah Kazis.

April 29, 2011 - Streetsblog

"You Can Call It Sprawl, Or You Can Call it Quality of Life"

That's Billy Burge of the Grand Parkway Association, referring to a plan in Houston, Texas to expand the city out into greenfields on the outskirts of the city.

April 28, 2011 - Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Remaking a Suburb into as Small Business Hub

Levittown is the quintessential American suburb. A new proposal seeks to reinvent it as a hub for small businesses.

April 28, 2011 - Fast Co. Design

Fighting Canadian Sprawl with TDRs

The TDR, or transfer of development rights, could be a way for Canadian cities to reduce the expansion of its sprawling cities, according to this piece.

April 28, 2011 - Globe and Mail

Defending New Urbanism

New Urbanism has been given a bad rap, according to co-founder Andres Duany. In this piece for Metropolis he sets the record straight.

April 27, 2011 - Metropolis

The Fall of the Suburbs

In this wide-ranging post for The Atlantic, the NRDC's Kaid Benfield explores some of the major trends playing out in urban and suburban America, and how the suburbs are less and less the dominant urban form in the market.

April 27, 2011 - The Altantic

Reinventing Madrid

The completed Madrid Rio Project will transform a highway into a large urban park, and is just part of the ambitious agenda of Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, an agenda that earned him the nickname "the pharaoh."

April 26, 2011 - Sustainable Cities Collective

The Yin and Yang of Urban Redevelopment in Hong Kong

Researchers from the University of Washington trace the history and development of Hong Kong, the skyscraper capital of the world, from reclamation of waterfront land in the 1800's to contentious urban renewal projects today.

April 25, 2011 - Metropolis Magazine

An Interview With the Director of NYC's Active Design Program

Joyce Lee discusses NYC's Active Design Guidelines and how they address the relationship between urban form and public health.

April 25, 2011 - THE DIRT

Neighbors Take Desire for Park Space Personally

A community in Salt Lake City is pooling their cash to purchase an empty lot owned by the LDS (Mormon) Church for a much-needed park. They hope to give the land to the city to maintain, but the church and state may not be on board with the plan.

April 25, 2011 - The Salt Lake Tribune

Planners and the Jane Jacobs Conundrum

When it comes to Jane Jacobs, planners pick and choose what they find useful, says Roberta Brandes Gratz, missing Jacobs central argument for grass-roots, bottom-up planning. Gratz reviews a new book "Reconsidering Jane Jacobs."

April 25, 2011 - Roberta Brandes Gratz

Building a Temporary Retail Center on Vacant Land

A new project is opening in San Francisco that utilizes a vacant piece of land for a temporary retail installation using shipping containers.

April 24, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

Beauty and the City

Architects and urbanists gathered in the city Jane Jacobs made her home to ask, "What makes a beautiful city?"

April 22, 2011 - Azure

Sprawl, European Style

The U.S. often gets a bad rap for its sprawling suburbs and unplanned development, but Robert Kwolek notes that many European cities and other parts of the world aren't far behind.

April 22, 2011 - Sustainable Cities Collective

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.