The result of a collaborative effort between five editors and 43 professionals from around the world, a new open-source book documents the essential concepts and strategies for creating great cities at eye level - along the ground floor ("plinths").
Ground floors, or "plinths," are the most crucial parts of buildings for creating great cities. They define the way a city's public and private spaces interact, and are essential to creating commodious pedestrian environments. "The ground floor may be only 10% of a building, [but] it determines 90% of the building’s contribution to the experience of the environment," say editors Hans Karssenberg & Jeroen Laven.
"A great city at eye level requires a strategy based on three domains: software (use, the experience, the functions), hardware (design of plinths, buildings, streetscapes, hybrid zones and principles of sustainability) and orgware (organisation of functions and portfolio maintenance). The 215-‐page book offers ideas, solutions and examples of the best ground floors and ground-‐level planning from cities across the world. The concluding chapter proposes 75 specific lessons for good plinths."
A [PDF] of the book, "The City at Eye Level", is available for free download.
Read the full story: The City at Eye Level
A Transect of sprawl
A development pattern this lifestyle-defining deserves its whole own classification system.
The number of kids walking to school dropped from over 50% to 11% since the 1960s
Unsafe pedestrian infrastructure makes walking to school dangerous or impossible for a growing number of American students.
Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
In the third and final installment of this series, author Hannah Kosoff examines what her research findings say about modern dating and urban form.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
‘Going backwards:’ Baltimore mayor, students rally against state's transit funding plan
Maryland's proposed six-year plan provides no funding for Baltimore’s BMORE bus program and reduces its road maintenance funding.
Detroit to transform waterfront with $2.2 billion investment
Developers will convert about 18 acres of unused parking lot space into civic spaces.
Data center developers are using lawsuits, cash offers to ‘overwhelm’ rural America
Newsrooms in five states worked together to uncover the tactics big tech developers use to buy land from reluctant communities.
U.S.-Iran war may have ‘devastating’ impact on cost to warm homes
Vermont and Maine residents may see a 76% increase in the cost of warming their homes this winter.
Senate bill would ‘overhaul’ environmental permitting laws
Under the proposed act, government agencies would also not be able to suspend or rescind permits after granting them.
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.
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority