Paris Plages

A Day at the Beach in Downtown Detroit

Inspired by the Paris Plages temporary urban beach along the Seine, a temporary beach in a park in Downtown Detroit is inspiring the Motor City to rethink its public spaces.

September 30, 2014 - Project For Public Spaces

With Pop-Up Project, Detroit Becomes a Beach Town

With 150 tons of golf-course bunker sand, the Downtown Detroit Partnership has turned a traffic island at the southern end of the Campus Martius into an urban beach, part of a larger effort to revitalize they city's downtown.

June 28, 2013 - Detroit Free Press

Letting Children Take Back Our streets

Tim Gill chronicles a community-based movement to reclaim streets for play, part of a global wave of playful street-based interventions looking to change the nature of how we view our shared spaces.

March 31, 2012 - Rethinking Childhood

Paris 'Beach' Opens

The annual transformation of riverbanks to beaches has begun in Paris, where the River Seine becomes a widely visited outdoor public space known as Paris Plages.

July 23, 2008 - The Guardian

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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.