Good urban design can make growth more appealing.
Amid the debate over growth and development in Los Angeles, urban designer Gerhard Mayer takes to Streetsblog LA to write, "The public resistance we are feeling against change is partially because we, the design profession, have not offered better ways to live in our cities"—nor does policy exist to support them.
Rather than defaulting to "extremes"—single-family houses and skyscrapers—he suggests that Los Angeles borrow from Europe and reorient itself to building "multiple types of dwellings for a variety of situations and income levels."
Two of what Mayer calls the "missing middle buildings" are the row house and the perimeter apartment block.
Row houses—which are banned in L.A.—are "the ideal single family house type near transit, and as such, they are the workhorses of a comfortable city," he writes. They "perfectly mediate between an urban core and a single family neighborhood," and "can achieve the minimum density required to run efficient, economically self-sustaining public transit."
Perimeter apartments "only line the edges against the streets, but inside the block there is a green courtyard"—where playgrounds or retail can be sited "in the middle of the city, but safe and unencumbered by automobiles."
FULL STORY: Successful Buildings For A Better City
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
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.