The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

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 - The Witherspoon Institute

The US State Department Bureau of Overseas Building Operations plans to release new guidelines for design excellence to inform the architecture of embassies around the world.

May 2 - Architectural Record

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 - Free Association Design

Delhi is considering installing "pod cars," known in the U.S. as personal rapid transit or PRT, as a form of public transportation.

May 2 - TheCityFix.com

Vancouver, B.C. is known for its strong commitment to progressive planning, which has resulted in a dense, vibrant downtown. Planning director Brent Toderian explains his city's biggest plan yet.

May 1 - re:place Magazine

Builder Magazine thinks its time to give the mid-rise (4-6 stories) building its due.

May 1 - Builder Magazine

In this interview, Treme creator David Simon discusses what motivated team that produced "The Wire" to turn their attention from Baltimore to New Orleans.

May 1 - AlterNet

Planners have embraced "1/4th of a mile" as the official distance that people are willing to walk to take transit. But why is that the measure, and is it accurate?

May 1 - Human Transit

Community leaders hope to raise awareness and the profile of a beloved city daughter.

May 1 - The Scranton Times Tribune

New Jersey owes the Feds $271 million for canceling the infamous, $9 billion Hudson River rail tunnel. The state was ordered to pay up in not-so-subtle terms by DOT Secretary LaHood.

April 30 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

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 - The Chicago Tribune

Howard Blackson looks at new tools for fixing cities, including form-based codes, plans for complexities (neighborhoods, urban patterns, architecture), classification of character, and funding systems.

April 30 - PlaceShakers

Theodore Tremelstam argues that the United States desperately needs to develop alternate sources of fuel, awakening his buddy Bill at 3 o'clock in the morning in this Point/Counterpoint.

April 29 - The Onion

Would you believe its Olive Branch, Mississippi? Since 1990, the Memphis suburb has grown an astonishing 838 percent.

April 29 - The Commercial Appeal

To save $1 million a year, the mayor is folding the Planning Department into the department in charge of processing building permits.

April 29 - Voice of San Diego

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 - Device Magazine

A new online tool uses the power of crowdsourcing to "map, inventory, and preserve the Philadelphia urban forest."

April 29 - Azavea

The great senior sell-off, rising household sizes, dropping homeownership, tighter lending standards, and other reasons why the next decade will be a disaster for homebuilders, writes Robert Steuteville.

April 29 - New Urban Network

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 - Streetsblog

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles was built into a 1960s department store, and in the 90s the facade was fashioned to look like the grill of a vintage car. With new funds in hand, the museum wants something more "attention-grabbing".

April 29 - Los Angeles County Museum on Fire