Urban Design

Walmart Museum

Plans for Walmart's New Corporate Headquarters Return to Company's Roots

Walmart hasn't always synonymous with sprawl, and maybe it won't always be. Its new corporate headquarters has been designed as a walkable urban place, and a magnet for talent.

November 24, 2019 - Curbed

Yonge Street Toronto

A Pedestrian-Forward Vision for Toronto Roadway

Toronto’s iconic Yonge Street is heavily used by pedestrians, and, according to this article, it's time for a revamp that acknowledges all of the street's users.

November 24, 2019 - The Star

Women in the City

What Would Cities Look Like if They Were Designed by Women?

Cities are built by men, and so too often urban design does not reflect the needs, perspectives, and realities of women.

November 11, 2019 - BBC

Walkable Street

Envisioning the 'Soft City'

Density and diversity—where boundaries between spaces and uses are lessened—create more vibrant, livable places and more functional cities.

September 18, 2019 - Fast Company

Skateboard Park

Skateboarding and the City

Skateboarding is becoming a legitimate part of the urban landscape by revitalizing public spaces and engaging young people and the broader community.

September 4, 2019 - The Conversation

Ghost Bike

Op-Ed: Street Safety Is a Matter of Race

What do traffic safety and gun violence have in common? A lot, as it turns out. In both cases, hard-hit neighborhoods tend to have suffered from historical disinvestment along racial lines.

September 1, 2019 - Brookings

Automated Vehicles

Can Autonomous Vehicles Absolve the Sins of 20th Century Planning?

Self-driving cars are likely to become part of the urban landscape in the future, and they have the potential to drastically alter urban environments—in good and bad ways.

August 8, 2019 - The Washington Post

Atlanta Aerial

Atlanta Pop-Up Studio Brings Urban Designers into the Community

The Atlanta City Studio lets community members talk to the city’s urban designers about the projects most important to them.

June 6, 2019 - Next City

Chicago Street

Design Thinking Needs a Broader Perspective

A design-focused study of mode choice doesn’t consider the many ways people interact with and travel through urban environments.

May 15, 2019 - City Observatory

Portugal

The Practical Confessions of an Urbanist Pilgrim

After 12 days of walking the Portuguese Camino, the importance of many urban planning and development debates—from balanced growth to banning cars—became abundantly clear.

May 7, 2019 - Charles R. Wolfe

Los Angeles

Unequal Distribution of Shade Is Environmental Injustice

A longread, written by Sam Boch and published by Places Journal, has been creating a stir online and is highly recommended for those with an interest in intersections between social justice and urban design.

May 3, 2019 - Places Journal

Hip Hop Architecture Camp Connects D.C. Youth to Futures in Urban Planning

D.C. youth collaborate with local hip hop artists to create planning inspired music video.

April 23, 2019 - Curbed Washington D.C.

Woman Walking

How to Design and Plan to Address the Root Causes of Gender Inequality

Gender equality has never played such a prominent role in the design of public and urban spaces. The world needs more than superficial, reactionary measures to address the long history of public space as the physical realm of patriarchy.

April 12, 2019 - Behavioral Scientist

Dallas, Texas

Programming Over Serenity Favored in 21st Century Park Design

The new urban public realm in the United States is highly programmed—some of that design approach reflects the trends of culture and some reflects a history of violence and bad for PR for parks at the end of the 20th century.

March 30, 2019 - American Scholar

Fortnite Screensgrab

What Do Cities in Fortnite Look Like?

Fornite is one of the fastest growing multiplayer games in the history of games, with over 125 million players in one year. A teenager Fortnite player publishes a collection of images from the major cities in the game.

March 29, 2019 - Grant Reviews Blog

Planning Consensus Game

New Planning Games Focuses on Consensus Building

A new game called Imaginable Guidelines invites participants to imagine, explore, discuss, and share their vision for the future.

March 7, 2019 - CityLab

San Francisco Civic Center

Design Review: Massive Civic Center Renovation Proposed in San Francisco

The city of San Francisco is proposing an ambitious renovation of its Civic Center—the series of public spaces connecting Market Street to City Hall.

March 6, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

Contest: Design a Logo for New York's Privately-Owned Public Spaces

New York City is holding a competition for a distinctive logo to clearly demarcate all of its 550 privately-owned public spaces.

February 22, 2019 - AM New York

New York City Street

The Case for Bottom-Up Urban Planning and Design

The wisdom of a broad cross section of residents and stakeholders is an essential part of planning and designing livable, efficient, and authentic communities.

January 22, 2019 - Strong Towns

Bus Stop and Bike Lane

Downtown Seattle Corridor Gets Visioning Treatment

A stakeholder group hopes to create a pedestrian- and business-friendly streetscape in Downtown Seattle.

January 4, 2019 - The Urbanist

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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.