Places Journal has just launched Reading Lists: a new, interactive tool that enables readers to create and share topical lists of articles, books, and other media from diverse sources.
Places Journal has always targeted an interdisciplinary readership—scholars, students, and practitioners in diverse fields from architecture to landscape ecology to urban geography. The journal has just announced the release of a new tool—Reading Lists—that promises to strengthen ties between the design disciplines and related fields. As part of its commitment to public scholarship and innovative practice, Places is encouraging readers to share topical lists of articles and books in their areas of interest and expertise.
With the new tool, users will be able to share a syllabus with colleagues, students, and friends; to build an annotated bibliography; and to bookmark Places articles for future reading. Lists can be cross-referenced by subject and shared privately or publicly. Places is launching the new channel with a collection of Featured Lists that includes Nate Berg on the aesthetic design of freeways; Kristi Cheramie on geoengineering by the U.S. Army Corps; Brian Davis on Latin American urbanisms; Nina-Marie Lister on critical ecologies; Shannon Mattern on reading in public; Amy Murphy on women, space, and cinema; Enrique Ramirez on Texan film and culture; Frederick Steiner on environmental literature; Dorothy Tang on the new landscapes of China; and researchers at Columbia University’s Buell Center on architecture, housing, and real estate.
Read the full story: Places Journal
Why Developers Love Parks—the High Line in New York as an Example
The High Line is proving to be a powerful catalyst for development but the same can be true for nearly all parks (less perhaps the starchitect-designed projects near the High Line), explains former Empire State Development Corp VP Carol Berens.
Advocating a New Planning Covenant for Los Angeles
Two well-known Los Angeles civic leaders advocate a new framework for understanding the built environment and landscape of Los Angeles, setting a trajectory for sustainable development.
The Burden of Understanding Placemaking
Scott Doyon laments his growing knowledge of what makes great places because of how overly aware it makes him of bad planning and design.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
In Texas, data centers are swallowing promised parkland
Residents who moved to Taylor, Texas for a rural community now have to contend with three data centers in their backyard.
How a Chicago-sized wind farm beat the odds and powered on
The project spanned five presidential administrations and a standoff with a U.S. military base.
MTA gives itself 30 days to transform pit into basketball court
The site has been under construction since 2022; the city originally estimated it would finish the court in 2024.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority