Urban Development

For half a century, suburbs surpassed city centers in population and job growth. These economic and demographic trends appear to be reversing. America's cities have grown faster than outlying areas and new research that jobs are coming with them.

February 24, 2015 - Surging City Center Job Growth

Most of the suburbs of the 20th century weren't designed to last more than a generation or two. As many suburbs decay, or get replaced by farther-flung rings of new bedroom communities, Carmel, Indiana is trying something different.

February 24, 2015 - New Geography

Rapid urbanization and climate change will make it harder for cities to provide crucial resources for their citizens. In this article, Arup consultants Amy Leitch and Laura Frost examine how the built environment can fill this emerging need.

February 24, 2015 - Arup Connect

Despite its economic dynamism, Mumbai is known for a lack of adequate housing. Citywide increases to maximum Floor Space Indices (i.e., Floor Area Ratios) will increase living space per resident, provided the right redevelopment takes place.

February 24, 2015 - Vox

In some places in the United States, mostly in Florida, some suburban cities have become the big kids on the block.

February 24, 2015 - Panethos

The explosive growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in recent years has mostly gone toward rental housing, and now the area has one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country.

February 23, 2015 - The Dallas Morning News

Development connected to a proposed light rail line through Mercer Island—connecting Seattle to the West and Bellevue to the East—has met staunch local opposition.

February 23, 2015 - The Seattle Times

The 200-acre operational rail yard is the largest of six affordable housing sites that Mayor Bill de Blasio targeted for development. He hopes to build more than 11,000 units of affordable housing there, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is not on board.

February 23, 2015 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

Although it hosts some of the nation’s first and most successful auto suburbs, Long Island has experienced a downturn. This infographic-focused piece delves into the reasons why.

February 22, 2015 - CityLab

A recent article in Washington City Paper pushes back on the notion that the ill effects of gentrification are overblown. Resurgent cities must, according to the article, find ways to achieve the benefits of gentrification—without the displacement.

February 22, 2015 - Washington City Paper

A housing report by analyzing Philadelphia's Center City enunciates an obstacle facing many cities in the throes of downtown revitalization: What happens when Millennials don't come home to roost?

February 20, 2015 - Philadelphia

"Depending on where you live in Melbourne, it could take longer to get into the city than it did in the 1920s," according to an article The Age. But really not much has changed.

February 20, 2015 - The Age (Australia)

An interview with Joel Russell, executive director of the Form-Based Codes Institute.

February 19, 2015 - AARP

A local blogger takes umbrage with claims that Austin's density is causing its traffic problems. The obvious problem with that argument: Austin is 68% as dense now as it was in 1950.

February 18, 2015 - Car Free Austin

A controversial zoning decision paved the way for a large assisted living facility in Alexandria, Virginia. The need for such a drastic measures reflects a growing need to plan for aging populations.

February 18, 2015 - Alexandria Times

The head of Portland's Bureau of Development Services is asking that planners raise standards for discretionary review of development proposals. Among the points made to planners in a recent memo: customer service is not the same as getting to "yes."

February 18, 2015 - The Oregonian

Blogs are a rewarding platform for bringing academic perspectives and research results to a much broader audience of scholars, planning professionals, students, and citizens.

February 18, 2015 - Dean Saitta

How can we redirect our city building into a form that can handle the expected doubling of urban residents over the next 40 years? Great ideas can be found in this collection of soundbites from the film, "The Human Scale."

February 17, 2015 - PlaceShakers

Research published by Governing Magazine finds that Portland, Oregon is the U.S. city with the highest degree of gentrification in this century.

February 17, 2015 - Fusion

Sam Hall Kaplan elucidates the inadequacies of affordable housing policy before introducing a new perspective to the conversation—a new book by Roger Katan with Ronald Shiffman called "Building Together."

February 17, 2015 - Sam Hall Kaplan