When working a charrette in Jamaica, architect Steve Mouzon inadvertently inspired local children to set a recommendation for urban farming to song.
Steve was working in Rose Town, Jamaica, and he noticed that the town's walls were painted with parables. After talking with local elders to get the words right, he got someone on the charrette committee to paint their recommendation up on a fence: "Plant your yard with things you can eat, for why should your yard lay fallow while you spend more of your money at the grocery store?"
Steve writes, "I was standing to the side, listening to pieces of several conversations when a local architect stepped up to me in an animated fashion and said "Steve, you must come now! You must hear this!"
"Hear what?" I asked. "What is happening?" As we stepped through the door into the night air, I could hear them... the voices of children singing. This group of little children were taking these simple words on a wall that were never meant to have rhythm or rhyme, and they were turning them into a song!"
FULL STORY: The Birds-Eye Slum-View Problem
A Peek into Gensler's Creativity Boosting Workshop
A recent Gensler workshop to brainstorm the design process reaffirms the importance of design charrettes, idea sharing, or brainstorming for every project, writes San Diego Gensler Design Director Marin Gertler.
How to Improve Charrettes
In participatory planning, there is no planning without several events known as charrettes, which you probably already knew. Less likely to be common knowledge, however, is how charrettes can live up to their promise in the planning process.
Jamaica, Queens: More Than Just a Stop on the Way to the Airport
Public and private interests have emerged to revitalize the Queens neighborhood, an inter-modal hub ten miles east of Midtown Manhattan.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Canada vs. Kamala: Whose Liberal Housing Platform Comes Out on Top?
As Canada votes for a new Prime Minister, what can America learn from the leading liberal candidate of its neighbor to the north?
The Five Most-Changed American Cities
A ranking of population change, home values, and jobs highlights the nation’s most dynamic and most stagnant regions.
San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan
The plan provides a comprehensive framework for making San Diego’s transportation network more multimodal, accessible, and sustainable.
Housing, Supportive Service Providers Brace for Federal Cuts
Organizations that provide housing assistance are tightening their purse strings and making plans for maintaining operations if federal funding dries up.
Op-Ed: Why an Effective Passenger Rail Network Needs Government Involvement
An outdated rail network that privileges freight won’t be fixed by privatizing Amtrak.
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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions