Land Use

Building sizes have been creeping upward for centuries, but green building expert Jason McLennan argues that smaller structures are better, more beautiful, and ecologically inevitable.

March 29, 2011 - Yes!

Transit planning consultant Jarrett Walker pools his readers' brains together to rough out what circumstances would need to be in place to create a truly transit-activated public space.

March 29, 2011 - Human Transit

Stacy Passmore writes that public spaces "take on a different form and meaning in a West African city."

March 28, 2011 - re:place Magazine

Los Angeles County is in the process of writing a "Model Streets Manual", with funding coming from an unlikely source: The Department of Public Health.

March 28, 2011 - Project for Public Spaces blog

Rockville Town Square in Rockville, Maryland is a 12.5 acre mixed-use development that, despite being built in 2007 right as the housing crisis happened, is a raging success. Simmons Buntin looks at what developers did right.

March 28, 2011 - Terrain.org

Toronto architecture critic Christopher Hume visits New Orleans, and concludes that "the devastation wrought by Louisianans upon Louisiana far outweighs anything a hurricane can do."

March 27, 2011 - The Toronto Star

Egyptian architects and planners cite the number of large public spaces as a factor in the success of protests in that country leading to the ousting of Hosni Mubarak.

March 26, 2011 - Congress.org

The City of San Francisco is expanding its program of "parklets" -- small public patio-like spaces built on parking spots.

March 25, 2011 - The San Francisco Examiner

As gas prices rise, more voices are calling for increased investments in transit and more multi-modal city planning.

March 24, 2011 - USA Today

Detroit's population plunged by 25% over the last decade, according to census figures - the largest decline of any major city in American history.

March 23, 2011 - New York Times

On the 50th Anniversary of New York City's 1961 Zoning Resolution, President of the Municipal Art Society of New York Vin Cipolla argues that New York "needs a new zoning resolution for a new era."

March 23, 2011 - Crain's NY

This interactive map from The New York Times overlays historic maps with modern-day maps of the city, and shows how the city and its street grid has developed.

March 23, 2011 - The New York Times

The street grid of New York City was born 200 years ago in an early map of the city.

March 22, 2011 - The New York Times

With gas prices increasing rapidly, Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology says the most effective solution is to reduce the demand by creating more "location-efficient" communities.

March 21, 2011 - Scott Bernstein

Are parks landscapes or infrastructures -- or can they be both? This question is broached in this wide-reaching interview on the role of parks in cities with landscape architect Gerdo Aquino.

March 18, 2011 - Archinect

As it prepares to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian resort city of Sochi has transformed from a "blank slate" into the "world's biggest construction site".

March 18, 2011 - Business Insider

This slideshow from Grist takes a tour of the top ten cities in the world for walking.

March 18, 2011 - Grist

America's first public parks were cemeteries. But over time, they've moved from the center of town to the edges. A new book looks at the history of these places of the dead.

March 18, 2011 - The Atlantic

Suburban areas are increasingly in the sights of planners and designers who are thinking of new ways to reform the sprawled out land use patterns. This interview looks at how those efforts relate to Houston.

March 18, 2011 - Transportation Nation

Blair Kamin says that Chicago's new master plan for the Lakeview neighborhood is full of big and "audacious" ideas, including a park under the El and many pedestrian improvements.

March 17, 2011 - The Chicago Tribune