From time to time, a single image captures the look and feel of city life, and successfully depicts an urban place where people come together.

Last week, I had the opportunity on the "Place Matters" radio show...

Take a creative break from today's active discussions about the benefits of urban density with a sonata that examines compact development examples from across the world:

Cross-posted in myurbanist.

All images composed by the author. Music composed by the author and Oscar Spidahl, and performed by Mr. Spidahl on a Steinway Model B at Sherman Clay,...

To my mind, one of the most compelling features of a provocative urban environment is a place where people watch people -- which becomes a small-scale human observatory.

Such places are often indicative of safe public environments, including...

Nothing is better for advocates of urbanism than simple immersion in the look and feel of a successful, authentic place.

After a week of observation in the cities, towns and villages of Pugila, Italy, most notable is the age-old,...

Those of us who write about cities should be students of history and experience, and with some humility listen to scholars and the legacy of urban development from from around the world. In that sense, a recent summary of sustainable...

Vital storefronts are an indicator of urban success, while empty businesses are akin to the ruins of Pompeii.

Even when storefronts go empty, some cities find ways to simulate that all is well. False facades,...

Amid the roads, sidewalks and places that you have visited before, there are often embedded patterns to uncover, read and reinterpret.

This exploration is an archaeology which involves more than unearthing distinct artifacts from another era.  For me, it includes observing the place-based impacts...

Last week, while the Seattle City Council gave final approval to more street food vendors in public places, Borders Group Inc. began its liquidation of most remaining Borders bookstores, including locations in destination American downtowns.

When a small branch of a local ice cream business opened within the laundromat up the street, it was evidence that today's land use regulations are becoming more in sync with changing urban reality.

Recently, I have been...

Cleaver Residence, Universal City Studios

After suggesting here last week that policymakers should plan for urban density's inevitable displacement of less efficient, but important land uses, I began to focus on specific elements of the American city and suburb with a high risk...

Last week, George Monbiot of The Guardian sounded the urbanist alarm.

The cause? In order to offset strains on infrastructure, an Australian provincial initiative is offering stipends to Sydney residents who leave town.

The archaeology of today's urban regions need not be excavation-based. One trick allows the illusion of memory through photographic tools.

Here are three photographs taken on June 23, at an under-leased, small suburban mall awaiting reinvention. A mixed use redevelopment lost momentum with the recession, and what is left is...

The corner is the central place of urban life. More so than public squares -- which require a conscious set-aside of assembled space -- corners naturally result from crossroads, the elemental feature of travel between places.

Ancient,...

A prevalent theme in contemporary urbanist articles and blog posts addresses the enhanced experience of places in cities -- whether while walking, biking, or using public transportation. Kasey Klimes' recent, personal reflections on bicycles as keys to better cities is no exception, and...

An eclectic Provence window below introduces a back and forth conversation between American facades (to the left) and their counterparts (to the right), contrasting often uneventful stylistic reserve and usually empty balconies with traditions of rich color and plantings, angular perspectives and private spaces speaking outward to the street.

What...

Lately, there is no shortage of reporting about big urban ideas and visions of what will make places great.

For David Roberts, writing in Grist, the answers are conceptual, e.g. assurance of ecological sustainability and density, while...

Could sustainability principles pave the path to peace?

President Obama's strategic statements about the Middle East last Thursday (and as clarified to AIPAC on Sunday) were not city-specific, but took me back one year to Jerusalem and in-person perspectives on the city's prospects.

My 2010

Visits to other cities can easily create "grass is always greener responses," which are hardly complete analyses of a place and its problems.

Yet these human, spontaneous gestalts are worth noting, because they say something about the immediate look...

Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it.

--Pierre Bonnard, Painter and Printmaker

Consider the role color plays in an everyday urban experience, how and why.  No  matter that some aspects of color in the city are naturally occurring; manipulation of...

Here's a review and look forward, focused on the expanding redefinition of American urban spaces, such as sidewalks and streets, and a symbiotic recalibration of the flanking private domain.

In a recent, related piece, I observed context and possibilities:

American placemaking advocates [should] consider pragmatic approaches when