How Should Industry be Integrated Into the Urban Fabric?

Are we on the brink of a third industrial revolution? Guest 'PlaceShaker' Scott Bernstein thinks maybe, and looks to past successes for key patterns and ideas for injecting walkability into areas with industrial or 'special' uses.

July 17, 2013, 9am PDT | Hazel Borys

"In her September 2011 blog, Special Districts Getting All Mixed Up, Hazel Borys questioned why we treat large format areas with distinctive uses, such as manufacturing or aviation, as 'special' to the point of exclusion from our efforts to integrate all urban land uses and activities into a spatially coherent whole, ending with an inspiring contemporary example of planned 'strict integration' of land uses in the corridors and boulevards connecting the El Paso International Airport to the city."

Bernstein goes on to examine some successful adaptations of the walkable grid into Chicago's industrial environments, including the Central Manufacturing District, Green Time Zone, Fulton-Carroll Industrial Incubator, and Planned Manufacturing Districts or PMDs.

Full Story:

Industry, Infrastructure and Intermodalism—Still Mixed Up on Special Districts?

Published on Monday, July 15, 2013 in PlaceShakers