The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

A New Direction for New Urbanists

At the 18th Annual Congress for New Urbanists, Andres Duany announced 'Agrarian Urbanism' as his new planning emphasis. He believes that the success of New Urbanism has stultified its progress and reduced its potential.

June 15 - Fast Company

L.A.'s Bold Transit Moves

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to cram 30 years of transit projects into one decade is gathering steam in Washington -- and other cities are watching closely.

June 15 - Next American City

Bruce Sterling on Cities

<em>Boing Boing</em> interviews author and futurist Bruce Sterling about global cities and how vastly expanding urban scale is not necessarily a problem.

June 15 - Boing Boing

Reusing Stalled Construction Sites in Seattle

Officials in Seattle are trying to pass legislation that would allow stalled construction sites to be reused as parking lots and temporary vending areas.

June 15 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Understanding Through Noshing

Conflict Kitchen is a new restaurant in Pittsburgh that serves food from countries that are in conflict with the United States.

June 15 - Azure


TOD Commands A Premium In Denver

Apartment seekers are willing to pay more for places next to transit, says a market analysis by Grubb & Ellis. Proximity to transit was the #1 factor in their decision.

June 15 - The Denver Post

Making Buildings More Like Ecosystems

Green building? Feh. Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow looks at the movement towards biomimetic architecture, buildings that create living, sustainable ecosystems of their own.

June 15 - The Boston Globe


Augmenting Sense of Place

In the first of a two-part series on augmented reality, Mitchell Schwarzer discusses how this new form of information affects our sense of place.

June 15 - Places

Hanging Out at the Virtual Mall

Mall operator Westfield Group says it is developing a completely virtual "mall" shopping space, and is seeking retailers to rent spaces.

June 14 - Retail Traffic Magazine

High-Speed Rail Will Mean 150,000 New Jobs

A new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that the added connectivity from high-speed rail will create 150,000 new jobs and $19 billion in new businesses by 2035.

June 14 - The New York Times

How Cities Can Take Advantange of Their Data

Public data can be more than information for cities. Some have even used it to help generate revenue.

June 14 - Next American City

The San Francisco of Fill-in-the-Blank

San Francisco is often upheld as a model for other global cities, with places such as Brighton, Port-au-Prince, and Geneva being compared to the city by the bay.

June 14 - The New York Times

FEATURE

Road Diets: Making Streets Slim Down Is Good For Pedestrians, Businesses And Even Traffic

Cities are greatly in need of slimming down their roads, says architect Michael Bohn. A recent project in Long Beach, California shows how curb extensions and street furniture can have a huge impact on the economics of downtowns.

June 14 - Michael Bohn

Roadblocks Hinder Infrastructure in Russia's Olympic Host City

The relatively tropical seaside resort of Sochi, Russia will play host to the 2014 Winter Olympics. But building the infrastructure to support those games has become a major challenge for officials.

June 14 - The Vancouver Sun

BLOG POST

Valuing The Precious Hours Of Our Lives

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Time is a limited and valuable resource. As much as possible, people should spend the precious hours of their lives in the most satisfying and productive possible ways. This has important implications for transportation planning, since most people spend a significant amount of time in transport, and travel time savings are often the greatest projected benefits of transport projects such as roadway and transit service improvements.</span> </p>

June 14 - Todd Litman

Four Cool World Cup Stadia and Their Uncertain Futures

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa has caused the creation or redesign of ten stadia. <em>The Architect's Newspaper</em> offers this list of four of the most interesting stadia and what future these expensive buildings may have.

June 14 - The Architect's Newspaper

Mayor Daley, a Retrospective

Mayor Daley's successes in downtown Chicago have attracted attention worldwide, but what about the rest of the city? Greg Hinz and Steven R. Strahler say Daley has fixed downtown but not the city's neighborhoods.

June 14 - Chicago Business

Transit Aid: The Operating Vs. Capital Dilemma

Transit advocates are used to battling the 'road lobby', but this article reports on a clash between small and mid-sized transit agencies (who want more flexibility) against the larger ones, as well as the main transit lobbying organization, APTA.

June 14 - The Washington Post

Privatize the Ocean?

With the devastating spill of oil in the Gulf, this post from <em>The National Review</em> suggests taking control over off-shore drilling out of the hands of government and putting it into the hands of private interests.

June 14 - The National Review

The Promise of the Big Dig Unfulfilled

Causeway Street, formed by the Big Dig in Boston, is in the plans as a vibrant new center of streetlife. With the Big Dig construction long over, planners say now is the time.

June 14 - The Boston Globe

Post News

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.

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.