The Mormon Church released renderings for development plans at 16th and Vine in Philadelphia. The plan's grab-bag of historic architecture styles succeeds in urbanism but roots the area in an unfortunate historicism, according to critic Inga Saffron.

Inga Saffron’ provides an ambivalent review of the Mormon Church’s plans for the area at 16th and Vine streets. “The collection of architectural pastiches promises to be one of the weirder ensembles produced in 21st-century America outside of Las Vegas,” writes Saffron. But, “Weirder still, they could end up as one of the most civic-minded projects now being built in Philadelphia.”
The development includes “a 1920s-style apartment tower with a teensy redbrick meetinghouse that looks as if it was dragged across town from colonial-era Society Hill” as well as a “snow-white, double-spired, French classical Mormon temple.”
Saffron’s very good question: “How do you respond to a development where the architecture is awful, but the urbanism is terrific - especially in a city routinely shortchanged in both categories?”
FULL STORY: Changing Skyline: Mormon development combines civic-mindedness, awful architecture

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing
The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant
A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing
Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.
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.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions