Urban Development

Can Atlanta's BeltLine Achieve its Potential?

The Eastside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine is immensely popular. With funding still in question and construction behind schedule on some of the transit that would integrate with the BeltLine, one writer re-examines the trail's vast potential.

May 8, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

Grocery Store Walk

Some Things Just Shouldn't Require a Car Trip

Inspired by a recent death-defying trip to the polls, a blogger lists some of the basic facilities that should be accessible to all pedestrians.

May 8, 2014 - The Black Urbanist

Niehoff Urban Studio

Lessons from a Groundbreaking Interdisciplinary Design Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati

Niehoff Urban Studio brings students from different departments together to work on bettering Cincinnati's built environment.

May 8, 2014 - Anna Bergren Miller

What (or Who) Can Make a Downtown Revival Happen in Warren, Michigan?

After past attempts to redevelop the downtown of Michigan's third largest city failed, Warren's mayor believes that the city's downtown and civic center is ready to transform into a bustling urban environment. What will it take to make that happen?

May 7, 2014 - Detroit Free Press

'Cap & Toll' Plan Proposed for Mountain View, California

To address the growth of commute traffic to the Google campus and neighboring tech companies in the north (of Hwy. 101) part of this city of 74,000 in Silicon Valley, the city council is proposing a toll on all three road entrances to the area.

May 6, 2014 - Mountain View Voice

Gentrification

Gentrification as Public Health Risk

Research around the United States has found gentrification to produce public health risks. Will lessons from Oakland and New York City be enough for a rapidly gentrifying city like St. Louis to escape poor public health outcomes?

May 5, 2014 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Back from the Dead? California Legislature Reconsiders Redevelopment

Via competing bills, California's Legislature is holding a surprisingly quiet debate on what redevelopment was for in the first place and what aspects of it may be worth reviving.

May 4, 2014 - California Planning & Development Report

Hollywood Park Development: End of an Era in Inglewood

The Hollywood Park horseracing track in Inglewood, California, follows the path of racetracks in Sam Mateo and Queens that have recently given way to large housing developments.

May 2, 2014 - The Architect's Newspaper

Southampton Street

Lessons in Planning from the Future Long Island

Andy Freleng recently answered a series of questions about life on Long Island, and its future, from his perspective as chief planner of Suffolk County.

May 1, 2014 - The Foggiest Idea

The Texas Miracle: Looking Beyond the Impressive Growth Numbers

Texas is booming—its growth in people and jobs puts it in a league of its own. But another set of growth data pales by comparison: Infrastructure, particularly in the water and transportation needed to accommodate the growth, is woefully lacking.

April 30, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal - U.S. News

Quiz: How Many Stories Constitute a 'Residential Tower'?

Sure, it's a subjective question. Where I live, it's anything taller than four stories, at least in the local media's eyes. But from a real estate perspective, there really is a minimum number, and they are being built in record numbers in the U.S.

April 29, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal - U.S. News

The Health of Cities Depends on Place-Based Development More than Big Projects

Cities take a physical form that either supports or is stressful to people outside of a moving vehicle or building. Witold Rybczynski, in his critique of New Urbanism, forgets that lesson.

April 28, 2014 - Better! Cities & Towns

Downtown Dallas' Comeback Story

Downtown Dallas provides another example of the redemptive power of adaptive reuse. With the number of empty buildings declining every year and more ambitious projects on the way, is it safe to say Downtown Dallas is all the way back?

April 28, 2014 - Dallas Morning News

The Hudson Yards 'Quantified Community' Experiment

Undergirding the massive mix of uses and investments called Hudson Yards is an ambitious plan to gather and analyze data provided by the 65,000 people a day who make use of the facility.

April 28, 2014 - FastCompany Exist

The Grotao Community Center

Interdisciplinarity and the Equitable City

On Urban-Think Tank, a design firm working at the intersection of architecture and urbanism to further environmental justice.

April 28, 2014 - Anna Bergren Miller

Curitiba Skyline

Ecocity versus Duplicity

If certain elements of masterplanning are not carefully chosen—and their impacts not carefully explained to final decision makers—then there runs great risk that the cities we design from scratch perform worse than the cities we already have.

April 28, 2014 - Ian Sacs

Riverfront Revitalization Rolls On in Pittsburgh

A recent article revisits the accomplishments of the Pittsburgh over the past 15 years in revitalizing the waterfronts of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers.

April 27, 2014 - Pittsburgh Magazine

Washington D.C. COnstruction

Watch D.C.'s Surface Parking Lots and Unoccupied Buildings Disappear

The Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District recently released its State of Downtown report. Downtown D.C.'s transformation over the last two decades has created an incredible revenue generator for the city.

April 27, 2014 - The Washington Post

Bill to Revise Developments of Regional Impact Process Stalls in Florida

After opposition from environmental groups and the Florida Association of Counties, SB 372 by Sen. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) will have to try again next year.

April 25, 2014 - The Florida Current

Happy Ending for Controversial Development Proposal in Philadelphia

Once a developer provokes the ire of the community surrounding a proposed development and the word NIMBY gets bandied about, chances for a mutually beneficial solution are slim to none. Not so with the One Riverside project in Philadelphia.

April 24, 2014 - Philadelphia Inquirer

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.