Redevelopment

Rendering of Watermark District campus redevelopment

Houston Office Park Continues Adaptive Reuse Trend

The former ConocoPhillips campus, built as a self-sufficient complex complete with a lagoon and fitness center, will be repurposed into a mixed-use waterfront development.

January 10, 2023 - The Architect's Newspaper

Google Street View of empty construction site with blue construction fence

Chicago Sears Redevelopment To Include Medical Facility, Housing

Developers have announced details about the long-awaited renaissance of a shuttered West Side Sears store.

December 29, 2022 - Block Club Chicago

Dirt lot with construction cranes and parked cars with downtown Houston skyline in background

Gentrification in Houston’s Rapidly Changing East End

Two approaches to redevelopment reveal the nuances of gentrification and neighborhood change.

December 15, 2022 - Next City

Cleveland, Ohio

Cuyahoga Riverfront Redevelopment Announced

The $3.5 billion project aims to revitalize the historic waterfront with new mixed-use developments.

December 5, 2022 - Spectrum News 1

A map of New Jersey focuses on Haledon and blurs our surrounding cities such as Paterson.

Zoning Changes Intended to Spur Redevelopment in Haledon, New Jersey

The borough of Haledon is hoping that less restrictive zoning will spur a new wave of development and economic activity along one of the city's commercial corridors.

October 26, 2022 - North Jersey

Mission Bay and Potrero Hill

Caltrain Railyard Redevelopment Back on the Table in San Francisco

An incredibly complex development proposal for 20 acres of Caltrain railyard is back on the table, nearly a decade since it first made news in San Francisco.

October 17, 2022 - San Francisco Chronicle

A map highlights Cutler Bay, located in South Florida along the Atlantic coast.

$1 Billion Redevelopment Planned for a Former Mall in Cutler Bay, Florida

Mall not making money like it used to? How would a $1 billion redevelopment sound?

September 22, 2022 - Globe St

Mega-Developments

Revisiting New York’s Massive Sunnyside Yard Master Plan

You might have lost track of the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan—a proposal for 12,000 new housing units in Queens—because it was announced to the public in March 2020 and has since been shelved.

September 14, 2022 - Gotham Gazette

New York City

Massive Empire State Complex Gains Key Political Support

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is backing one of the largest real estate development projects in U.S. history—larger even than the nearby Hudson Yards project.

September 5, 2022 - The New York Times

San Francisco, California

San Francisco’s Big Redevelopment Plan Was Paused for Equity Analysis That Never Happened

Checking in with The Hub, a proposed rezoning that would enable a multi-parcel redevelopment at a conspicuous intersection, two years after the city paused the rezoning for additional analysis (spoiler alert: the analysis hasn’t even started).

September 1, 2022 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Urban Living

D.C. Could Lead the Downtown Office Conversion Trend

Many urban cores around the country are faced with increasing office vacancies concurrently with a housing affordability crisis caused, at least in part, by a lack of supply. D.C. is particularly primed for a wave of adaptive reuse.

August 25, 2022 - Archinect

Aerial view of downtown San Antonio with Tower Life Building in foreground

San Antonio Office Tower To Become Residential

With the building more than half vacant, the new owners of the Tower Life Building plan to convert the historic tower into residences that could include affordable housing.

August 15, 2022 - San Antonio Report

Los Angeles Downtown Historic Core

Surveying the Rising Trend of Office-to-Residential Conversions

With office vacancies climbing and a stubborn supply crunch driving up the cost of housing, some downtowns have emerged at the forefront of a new wave of adaptive reuse.

August 2, 2022 - CoStar Group News

Front view of Art Deco 1933 Los Angeles County General Hospital building

Massive, Vacant L.A. Hospital To Become Affordable Housing

The historic building will be redeveloped with over 500 housing units and supportive services on site.

August 1, 2022 - Los Angeles Times

Brooklyn, New York City

What Is Redevelopment?

Redevelopment includes all development projects that build new structures and land uses on a previously developed site. Understanding the nuances of redevelopment is critical for understanding the ways cities and communities change.

July 29, 2022 - James Brasuell

The interior of a multi-story apartment building includes a children's' playground and a colorful mural.

La Placita Cinco: A Strip Mall Redevelopment for Housing Affordability and Neighborhood Revitalization

U.S. cities lack land for new development but have many derelict or defunct parcels in need of revitalization. There are an estimated 70,000 strip mall centers in the country, all with tremendous potential for affordable and workforce housing.

July 21, 2022 - Tim Mustard

Vacant Union Station in Phoenix, Arizona

Owner of Phoenix’s Union Station Eyeing Redevelopment

The new owner of the historic Union Station in Phoenix has plans to transform the site into a mixed-use events venue.

June 15, 2022 - My Plainview

Vacant Sears in suburban mall

A Second Life for the American Mall

‘Dead’ suburban malls, with their existing infrastructure, offer a variety of opportunities for redevelopment into everything from housing to parks.

June 12, 2022 - The New York Times

Shuttered strip mall in Niland, California

Strip Malls as a Housing Solution

The American strip mall may be a dying breed of commercial development, but could the buildings serve a new use as sustainable housing?

May 22, 2022 - Yale Environment 360

Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade

Santa Monica Garage-to-Affordable-Housing Conversion To Receive $2 Million

The city has been awarded $2 million in federal funding to support the conversion of a downtown parking structure into an affordable housing project.

March 29, 2022 - Santa Monica Mirror

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.

Top Books

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100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.