The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
The 40 Tools You Need to Build Your Own Civilization
The Global Village Construction Set is a group of farmers and engineers who are developing an set of open-source designs for the forty tools one would need to create a self-sufficient life living off of the land.
Religious Freedoms vs. Land-Use Laws
A Vermont couple is challenging the decision of a state zoning commission that limits their right to illuminate a 24 foot cross on their own property to several weeks around Christmas.
Religious Freedoms vs. Land-Use Laws
A Vermont couple is challenging the decision of a state zoning commission that limits their right to illuminate a 24 foot cross on their own property to several weeks around Christmas.
Green Buildings in Demand
A new poll of real estate experts reveals that businesses seeking office space are increasingly seeking buildings built with sustainability in mind.
FEATURE
Considering the Tiny Car
Transit Projects Create More Bang for the Buck
A new report from Smart Growth America finds that stimulus spending on public transit produced 70% more jobs per dollar than road spending.
Transit Can Drive Growth
Yonah Freemark dives into the 2010 Census, and finds clear evidence that focusing dense development around transit works to focus development.
Sprawling San Francisco Apt. Complex May Densify
Plans are afoot to densify one of San Francisco's biggest, most suburban apartment complexes, the 152-acre Park Merced constructed in 1941. If the Planning Commission approves the plan, the existing housing could be tripled, adding 14,000 units.
Andres Duany Says LEED and Optimization Driving Up Costs
Speaking at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference last week, Duany said that he fears developers will give up on building sustainably because of overly onerous infrastructure costs required by LEED and other systems.
The Implications of Transit Lingo
What do you think of when you think of the word "route" in relation to transit? What about the word "line"? Jarrett Walker argues that the language used to describe transit can influence how people think about it.
Landscape and Architecture Converging
The Architect's Newspaper explores the "fertile new approaches to building" springing from the growing use of landscaping in contemporary architecture.
Caltrain In Freefall
Service will be cut 44%, half the stations to close, elimination of mid-day and weekend service - that is the scenario laid for Caltrain, the West's oldest commuter rail, unless $30 million can be found - unlikely.
New TOD Residents Become Anti-Transit NIMBYs
King Farm, a 440-acre development in the D.C. suburbs, was designed to be the perfect transit-oriented development, with a light rail to be built later. Now, residents have decided they don't want the transit to ever be built.
The Broken Teeth of Philadelphia
David Gouverneur, urban designer and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at PennDesign, says mending the urban fabric of his city is a bit like acupressure: you put the pressure in certain key places to mend the whole.
Wind Power An Added Perk of Bridge Design
A team of Italian architects have proposed a honeycomb-like design for a viaduct that would include built-in wind turbines.
Kunstler Explains Peak Oil
In a video interview, author James Howard Kunstler talks about peak oil, the effect of Mexican drug gangs on America's oil supply, and the diminishing returns of new oil-extracting technologies.
The Mega-Problem for Mega-Cities: Management
Neither technology nor infrastructure shows any limit for how big or how fast cities can grow and more megacities are on the horizon, according to this piece from Richard Dobbs and Jaana Remes.
The Ultimate in Mixed-Use
Waste-to-energy power plant, and ski slope? Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) proposed the unusual idea for a competition to replace a power plant in Copenhagen -- and won.
Did GPS Kill the Lighthouse?
With GPS technology ubiquitous, the lighthouse perched high on a cliff may soon become a relic.
A Community Built to be Green
The Vauban District in southern Germany is a small community built around a green transportation scheme, but it has become much more: a model of cooperative decision-making, sustainability and eco-planning.
Smith Gee Studio
City of Charlotte
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
US High Speed Rail Association
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)
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.
