Urban Development

Skyscraper Construction Continues Record Breaking Pace

The new record for skyscrapers built in a year brakes the record set by the previous year. The record is expected to be set again next year.

January 24, 2016 - Dezeen

GM Announces Renovation of Detroit's Iconic Renaissance Center

Detroit's most iconic building, the Renaissance Center, will soon get a major upgrade.

January 23, 2016 - Detroit Free Press

Lancaster Central Market

Imagining the Future Urban Food Market

Public food markets can be key centers of urban commerce and social life. Late last year, a brainstorming event in London considered how they might evolve to accommodate modern lifestyles and technologies.

January 22, 2016 - Nesta

Students Submitting Ideas for the Hyperloop

As a part of a competition sponsored by SpaceX, university students and independent engineering teams are building scale-model Hyperloop pods.

January 22, 2016 - FutureStructure

Data Plus Community: A Winning Formula for Green Infrastructure

These days, Big Data is the topic at hand, but Arup's Vincent Lee says data analysis can only go so far. He uses his work on the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program to illustrate why a "human element" is crucial to finding solutions.

January 22, 2016 - Doggerel

Op-Ed: Billionaire's Ballot Initiative in San Diego Trades Revitalization for Tourism

The unlikely alliance of a ballpark billionaire, tax watchdog, and environmentalists in San Diego circulate a planning ballot initiative that makes an all-too-familiar sacrifice: urban neighborhoods.

January 22, 2016 - UrbDeZine

The Dutch Junction Explained

Cars and cyclists have issues at intersections. A new type of intersection design from the Netherlands offers improved protection to cyclists. The solution is based on the four islands near each corner of the intersection.

January 22, 2016 - Huffpost Good News

Miami Highway

On the Surprising Efficiency of Big City Commutes

Logically we might assume that as cities grow larger, commutes get harder. It can certainly feel that way. But research points to structural factors that actually make commuting in big cities more efficient.

January 21, 2016 - CityLab

Eastside Gold Line and Los Angeles skyline

What Will the 'Third Los Angeles' Look Like?

Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne describes an L.A. in flux, at once beholden to its postwar image and pushing in a new direction. The city, he says, faces existential questions on a scale unmatched elsewhere in the nation.

January 21, 2016 - The Architect's Newspaper

Walking

Reading List: Walking in the City

Sometimes, city walks can mean more than just getting from place to place. Author and book critic David Ulin discusses his favorite accounts of that rich experience.

January 21, 2016 - Barnes and Noble Review

Environmental Groups Sue to Stop Sprawl in the Inland Empire

On the fringes of the built environment in Southern California, comes a turn of events much more common in the urban core: the California Environmental Quality Act has been invoked to put the brakes on a general plan update.

January 20, 2016 - The Desert Sun

New York's Biggest Challenge for Emission Reduction Goals: Green Building

About 80 percent of New York City's greenhouse gas emissions come from its building stock, so the city's goal to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050 will hinge on aggressive retrofitting requirements in addition to new green building standards.

January 19, 2016 - Politico New York

Calgary Suburbs

Calgary Ends the 'Sprawl Subsidy'

An op-ed by the mayor of Calgary, Canada celebrates the adoption of a new off-site levy that will change the financing formula for new development and the necessary infrastructure that comes with it.

January 19, 2016 - Calgary Herald

Refugees Welcome

6 Ways Local Governments Can Prepare For the Arrival of New Migrants

At the UN’s Habitat III conference taking place this fall in Quito, Ecuador, the role of cities in addressing the movement of migrants will be a primary topic of discussion.

January 19, 2016 - Citiscope

Case Study: Denver's Accessory Dwelling Units

Since a zoning code change in 2010, the city of Denver has added 66 accessory dwelling units in a city of 650,000.

January 18, 2016 - The Denver Post

GE Relocates HQ from Suburban Connecticut to Boston

GE is abandoning its 68-acre suburban campus in Fairfield, Conn. for Boston's Seaport District. As WBUR's technology reporter, Curt Nickisch put it, "Today's knowledge workers want bike racks and subway stops not country clubs and parking garages."

January 17, 2016 - NPR

Tiny House

Are Tiny Houses All They Are Cracked Up To Be?

Maybe not so much, according to an article in the Globe and Mail.

January 16, 2016 - The Globe and Mail

Edward Jones Dome

With the Rams Departing—What Next for St. Louis?

The St. Louis Rams will become the Los Angeles Rams. What now becomes of the city of St. Louis?

January 15, 2016 - The New York Times

World Record Sale for Manhattan Real Estate, Again

The $5.46 billion sale last October for the private 83 acres of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village barely topped the prior world record set for the same property in 2006 and preserved 5,000 apartments for middle income renters.

January 15, 2016 - The Real Deal

Creating a Community of Choice

The Mountain View neighborhood in Anchorage is described as the most diverse neighborhood in the U.S., becoming a model of neighborhood change and a community of choice thanks to the efforts of local leaders and many dedicated community residents.

January 15, 2016 - Anchorage Press

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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.