Improving Suburbia Via A Contest

Can planners and architects build a better model of suburbia? Long Island Index thinks so, and has designed a contest to retrofit parts of asphalt laden suburban Long Island. Ideas are discussed in this NYT blog on design and architecture.

1 minute read

July 26, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT

By Irvin Dawid


Allison Arieff suggests that the word "suburb has outlived its usefulness as a descriptive term - and as a model for future planning."

"Suburbs continue to be designed for homogeneity even though they're no longer homogeneous at all, and in fact have become increasingly varied in type, density, infrastructure and demographics."

Noting that "Long Island is the third most segregated suburban region in the country" and the home of the a town so closely associated with suburbia, Levittown, it provides an excellent venue for planners to test their skills

"The aim of Build a Better Burb, says Ann Golob, director of the Long Island Index, was "to help Long Islanders visualize what our region might look like if we boldly reconsidered how we build here."

Thanks to Palo Alto Online

Thursday, July 22, 2010 in The New York Times - Opinion

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