Public Space
Street Vendors: Supporters or Spoilers of Public Space?
Ethan Kent, Enrique Penalosa, and Jonathan Crush offer contrasting perspectives on the effect of informal street vending on public spaces.
Cleveland's Public Space Revolution
With new bike paths, regional trails, and renovated parks, Cleveland is catering to bikes and pedestrians, says Steven Litt. He explains how this "car town" is "undergoing a revolution in attitudes toward public space, city streets and walkability."
With Mayoral Election Comes Hope for Fixing L.A.'s Broken Public Spaces
LAX, the LA River, Pershing Square; the list of Los Angeles' under-performing public spaces could sadly continue for a while. As the city votes for its next mayor, Christopher Hawthorne offers some "some straightforward ideas" about how to fix them.
Designing Public Spaces That Serve Users, Rather Than Egos
These are heady times for public space advocates. At long last the promotion of streets, sidewalks, parks and playgrounds has become part of the eminent design and development dialogue, and with it hopefully the recognition of the needs and rights of the user. This certainly is the situation in California where the approval of parklets, and other smaller scaled, vest pocket, public projects are being hotly pursued, and in other cities where the noble if not naive Occupy movement raised the profile and purpose of public space.
Why the Space Shuttle Feels Right at Home Along L.A.'s Grand Boulevards
It wasn't Angelenos' supposed love of the artificial and exaggerated that brought crowds of people to the city's streets to see Endeavour's slow crawl across town, but an appreciation for authentic spectacle and the pleasures of public space.
One Year Later, Assessing Occupy Wall Street's Effect on Space
On the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Occupy Wall Street, Richard Sennett looks at the movement's legacy with regards to rethinking public space.
Plans for Copenhagen's First 'Climate Adapted' Neighborhood Unveiled
By better integrating the natural and built environments, while enforcing standards of livability, Copenhagen seeks to transform its Saint Kjeld’s neighborhood into "a showcase area for climate adaptation technology," reports Damian Holmes.
As Parklets Bloom, SF Stays True to its Roots
As the number of completed parklets in San Francisco nears three dozen, after debuting only two years ago, "the latest trend in urban placemaking" has entered the planning mainstream without losing its grassroots origins.
The "Internet of Things" Tracks You from the Screen to the Sidewalk
Nate Berg muses over the shifting boundary between public and private, as technology follows us from the Internet into the physical world.
Organizing CicLAvia: An Experience of Public Space in Los Angeles
Days before the American Planning Association's national convention, CicLAvia's Aaron Paley describes the event's origins and evolution and explains how an open streets event in Los Angeles can transform one's sense of public space and the city.
Why You Can Never Find a Bench in San Francisco
Over the last two decades the city of San Francisco has systematically removed its public benches to fight homelessness. Now citizens are clamoring for their return.
Touring San Francisco's Parklets: A New Urban Trend
Parklets are a new urban trend spreading to cities all over the world. It's an idea born in San Francisco, and the San Francisco Chronicle's John King takes a tour of each of the city's new mini-parks
Private and Public Converge in Toronto's 'Information Pillars'
New street furniture is being installed in Toronto, but locals are already sick of it. They're called "information pillars" and are supposed to offer helpful directions and info to pedestrians, but critics complain that they're mostly advertisements.
Banned Billboards A Success in Brazil
Five years after Gilberto Kassab, the mayor of São Paulo, Brazil passed the "Clean City Law", banning all visual pollution around the city, both citizens and businesses are thankful.
The Politics of the Public Christmas Tree
Leon Neyfakh of The Boston Globe examines the unexpectedly cohesive political roots of the controversial civic symbol.
Mixed Feelings About Proposed Private-Public Space in London
The plan to create a floating public space along the Thames is a great idea, writes critic Rowan Moore, but the proposed London River Park will suffer from its private ownership and management.
Lever House Closes Temporarily To Protect Its Owners From "Adverse Possesion"
In an another nuance of the ownership laws that govern New York's parks and plazas, the modernist masterpiece Lever House will close today to keep its plaza privately public.
Poetry and the City
Poet Jon Cotner uses fleeting snippets of conversation in public spaces as the basis for his poetry. Caitlin Blanchfield took a walk with Cotner to talk about his process.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
From the Walklet in SF to Transparent Churches in the Netherlands, Allison Arieff argues that "temporary space remains a sharp tool in the urban revitalization kit." Sheer creativity notwithstanding, what makes these spaces so successful?
"Parklets" Pop Up in Vancouver
Transplanting the wildly popular pilot projects in NYC and SF across the northern border, the City launches VIVA Vancouver program that converts parts of eight streets into public spaces.
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
