The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Temporary Autonomous Zones Alter Public Space in The UK
The increase in outdoor music festivals, guerrilla gardening, temporary restaurants, cinemas and pop-up shops are all examples of "a growing appetite for transforming our apparently prosaic, profit-led landscape into something else."
Architecture Gets Political in Israel
Esther Zandberg calls on Israeli architects and planners to refuse to design in Ariel, a sliver of land that goes deep into Palestinian territory. "Architecture is the implementer of political decisions," says Zandberg.
Building Business By Building Bike Lanes
Cycling activists in Vancouver are trying to tout the economic benefits of bike lanes to help build the case for a proposed separated bike lane.
Pedestrianism a World Cup Legacy in Cape Town
Pedestrianism is on the rise in Cape Town, South Africa, where the recent World Cup has inspired more citizens to get out of their cars and put their feet on the street.
Blight Camouflage?
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the city has begun covering the broken windows and doors of abandoned homes with plywood painted to look like functioning doors and windows as part of a program to fight blight.
The Year of the City at Burning Man
The annual arts festival Burning Man is underway in Northwestern Nevada. This year's theme of Metropolis highlights the event's city-like nature.
A Little Bit of Venice in New Orleans
The waters that have for so long plagued New Orleans should be reconsidered as an amenity, not a curse, according to this commentary.
Dubai's Formula of Tax Free Economic Zones and Mass Tourism Doesn't Work
Joshua Hammer describes his visit to the financially straitened emirate where he found "deserted highways, empty hotel rooms, miles of unsold residential and office space."
Extensive Rapid Transit System Planned For Paris' Outer-Ring Suburbs
An extensive 96-mile network of rapid transit lines connecting Paris' poorer outer-ring suburbs, on hold since it was proposed a year ago because of its considerable cost, takes a step closer to realization.
Marketing Suburban Life To Gay Community
Berwyn, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, is running an aggressive marketing campaign to convince the gay community that their small city is a friendly and affordable place for them to live.
BLOG POST
Snow, Cars and Growth
<p> A couple of years ago, I was listening to a friend explain why she left Rochester for Jacksonville. "I was tired of digging my car out of the snow." It occurred to me that the nexus between driving and winter weather may at least partially explain the decline of America’s northern Rust Belt. </p> <p> Here’s why: car care and storage makes snow a bigger bother than might otherwise be the case: if you don’t have a heated garage, you have to dig your car out of the snow every day, and if you park on the street you may have to constantly move your car to accommodate municipal snow removal. </p>
Five Levels of Public Space
HafenCity is a district in Hamburg that is being built with flooding in mind. One way the development prepares for rising waters is having several layers of public space that can be used, creating a model for cities facing global warming.
You Can't Have Good TOD Without the T
Philip Langdon argues that if the U.S. is going to shift toward compact, less resource-consuming patterns of development, Americans will have to rely increasingly on mass transit - so it better work.
100 Acres of Art
100 Acres is the name (and size?) of a new park in Indianapolis that is a "hybrid of landscape, art, and architecture," according to Edward Blake, of Landscape Studio, the designers.
"Temporary" Parks Get Approved Easier
Heather Smith talks with urban designer Andres Power about his work creating parklets within the San Francisco Planning Department.
Meet the Geeks Re-Shaping D.C.
Planning nerd bloggers like David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington are finding that they can have significant influence in the world of D.C. planning and development.
Stealth Solar is Slowly Transforming Downtown Portland
In Portland, two examples of how stealthy implementation of solar-powered technology is changing the rhythm of daily life.
The Infoscape As An Integral Part of Architecture
Video L.E.D. screens with images of musicians are going up throughout Lincoln Center as part of the overall look and feel of the concert hall.
The Rise of the Global City
In 1991, author and sociologist Saskia Sassen predicted that cities would make a comeback in her book The Global City. Now that her prediction has come true, Christina Larson talks to Sassen about what makes a "global city."
Could Your Next Tomato Come From A Former Best Buy?
Gene Fredericks wants to turn empty big box stores into hydroponic and aquaponic growing centers using the latest technologies.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
