Connecticut

Vermont Gas Tax Increases on May 1

Vermont became the third state this year to legislatively increase its gas tax when Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the bill on April 29 that raises the gas tax by 5.9-cents and the diesel tax by 2-cents on July 1 and 1-cent next year.

May 1, 2013 - BurlingtonFreePress.com

Trend Towards Engagement Transforms America's Public Housing

Public housing models in the U.S. are becoming more community-oriented and taking varying demographics into account during the design process. Engagement with the street, the neighborhood, and social services are creating new design typologies.

March 29, 2013 - Architectural Record

America's New Geography of Poverty

NBC News looks at the plight of the Simons family in West Hartford, Connecticut, to examine the growth of suburban poverty in the United States.

March 23, 2013 - NBCnews.com

Transforming a Train Station on the Cheap

For only $155,000 a light sculpture has helped transform Stamford, Conn.'s unloved train station - “a building that has a harshness almost unequaled in contemporary architecture” - into a pulsating beacon "reminiscent of a Mondrian" painting.

March 10, 2013 - The New York Times

Federal Program Develops Innovative Greening Strategies, But Is Anyone Paying Attention?

Kaid Benfield spotlights an innovative federal program that is "not very well known but deserves to be." The "Greening America’s Capitals" program aims to make America's state capitals showpieces for green infrastructure and green building practices.

January 30, 2013 - NRDC Switchboard

Could Fortress-Like Schools Prevent Shootings?

The mass shooting at Newton, Connecticut brought gun control, violence in TV and video games, and mental health care to the forefront of a national debate. As talk turns to school design, architects consider the tradeoffs of fortress-like schools.

January 2, 2013 - Architectural Record

What Role Does Density Play in Gun Violence?

In the wake of what is becoming an all too common occurrence in the U.S., Richard Florida examines whether gun violence, and especially mass killings of the kind that took place last week in Newtown, is an urban or suburban/rural plague.

December 17, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Connecticut Seeks to Leverage Transit to Build Roads

With two major transit lines in the pipeline, and several billion dollars of road, bridge, and transit repair and replacement projects planned for the future, Connecticut officials are counting on transit-oriented development to help raise revenue.

December 12, 2012 - The Hartford Courant

Will 'Downtown Crossing' Project Heal New Haven's Divide?

A target of 1950s urban renewal, New Haven is looking to rewrite renewal's wrongs by re-connecting the Hill neighborhood with downtown via a highway cap project. Critics complain the project doesn't go far enough to heal the area's historic wounds.

July 24, 2012 - The New York Times

New Urbanists Duke it Out With Mayor Over Expressway Conversion

"We should not let the lame be the enemy of the perfectly adequate," says one critic of the New Haven mayor's proposal.

May 17, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Long-Awaited Bus Project Finally Gets Funding

According to Yonah Freemark, the FTA announced that with a "New Starts grant," the 9.4-mile bus rapid transit line that has been under consideration since the late 90's, has finally secured funds to complete the project.

November 29, 2011 - the transport politic

Creating a Nine-Mile Linear Park

Diana Balmori of Balmori Associates recently completed her work on a nine-mile long linear park along an old railroad line in Connecticut. The Awl presents an excerpt of her 2010 book A Landscape Manifesto.

November 27, 2011 - The Awl

Rusty "Home of Tomorrow" Up for Preservation

A prefab steel home built in 1933 on the campus of Connecticut College as a futuristic "home of tomorrow". Today, although covered in rust, it is still standing and being prepped for historic preservation.

October 10, 2011 - CBS Connecticut

From Waste Site to Walkable Village

Developers in Windsor, Connecticut are transforming a brownfield site into a $1 billion housing project, in the core of its corporate office center.

September 28, 2011 - The New York Times

$417 Million To Fund Highway Projects

Last week, the Federal Highway Administration awarded discretionary highway grants in what could be among the last expenditures before the Sept. 30 expiration of the gas tax. Included were $8m for Value Pricing Pilot Program projects in 5 states.

August 22, 2011 - FHWA Press Release

More Urban Highways Seeing Demise

Cities across the country are beginning to realize the mistakes they made years ago dividing their downtowns with urban highways. The city of New Haven has decided to do something about it.

March 4, 2011 - The Christian Science Monitor

Federal Transportation Funds For Highway Removal?

The second round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds were announced Oct. 20. Awards amounting to $600 million will go to 75 projects, including three highway teardowns.

October 21, 2010 - Grist

A Loopy Idea?

It's needed, it's not that expensive, and it's doable. But there's one little problem in New Haven's new streetcar plan.

October 1, 2010 - New Urban Network

LeylandAlliance and Educational Realty Trust Sign Deal

Overall, this $220 million project will be "one of the most ambitious public/private initiatives" in Connecticut.

September 22, 2010 - New Urban Network

Much Despised Building Finally Comes Down

In Hartford, Connecticut, a former department store that locals call "butt-ugly" is being demolished. Delays in its destruction had come to symbolize all that is wrong with Hartford politics, says Josh Goodman of Governing.

September 16, 2010 - Governing Magazine

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Senior Planner

City of Thousand Oaks

Community Development Director

City of Wisconsin Rapids

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

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