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Urban Planning

Making Plans; a Review of Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Frank Gruber

It's important to recollect that although planning has been instrumental in the creation and development of New Orleans, New Orleans still exists as a great city because of a planning failure.

Village Green: Rebuilding a Neighborhood Rich in Civil Rights History

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

  In the 1950s and 1960s, Montgomery, Alabama was the epicenter of the civil rights movement that changed America.  Not just Montgomery, of...

Group Donates $80 Million To Help 5 Struggling U.S. Cities

Posted 05.25.2011 | Impact

More than $80 million in grants, loans and investments were awarded Thursday to fund five U.S. cities' initiatives to help low-income communities, rep...

Architecture's Terror and Wonder: A Conversation with Blair Kamin

Guy Horton | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Guy Horton

Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, thoughtfully and provocatively defines the emotional and cultural dim...

Public Transport and the Evolution of Urban Culture

Hisham Wyne | Posted 05.25.2011 | World
Hisham Wyne

The importance of public transport for urban development cannot be overstated.

Village Green: Planning for Resilience on the Gulf Coast

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

Last month, Alabama governor Bob Riley issued an executive order creating a Coastal Recovery Commission for his state.  The Commission’s ta...

Westway Changed Transportation History

Roberta Brandes Gratz | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
Roberta Brandes Gratz

Westway was more than a highway; it reflected a national mindset. First proposed in the 1970s, Westway reflected post-war thinking that highways were the most important transportation investment.

Green Cards for Sale? Atlantic Yards Backers Seek Chinese Investors

Norman Oder | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
Norman Oder

If a seven-city promotional tour in China is successful, here's what may happen: 498 millionaires will park $500,000 for five years in an investment fund organized for the developer of Atlantic Yards.

Modernism, Fresno and the Future of a City's Heart

Charles A. Birnbaum | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Charles A. Birnbaum

The face of US post-war urban planning was irrevocably changed with the opening of Fresno, California's Fulton Mall, in 1964.

Prioritizing People or Space?

Rabah Ghezali | Posted 05.25.2011 | Politics
Rabah Ghezali

The foreclosure crisis highlighted the failure of our current urban policies. And now, it's affecting all of us.

A Coherent Metropolis? More in Response to the Book Urban Design

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Frank Gruber

How many metropolises are or could become something other than series of loosely related parts?

Village Green: Using a Weekend Street Fair to Change a Neighborhood

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

The concept:  take a portion of a neighborhood that has unrealized potential, recruit volunteers, business people and civic officials to transfor...

White light

Logan Nakyanzi Pollard | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Logan Nakyanzi Pollard

...

How (And Why) City Mayors Should Promote Play

Darell Hammond | Posted 11.17.2011 | Healthy Living
Darell Hammond

Play is under attack, and its enemies are wide-ranging. The good news is that the fight to save play can be advanced on many fronts, from federal prog...

More Thoughts on Urban Design (the Field) and Urban Design (the Book)

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Frank Gruber

Cities thrive on complexity but suffer under chaos. Humans respond to chaos by creating systems. Systems require cooperative efforts that, in turn, require planning.

Village Green: Reviving the Post-Industrial City

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

  Syracuse, New York in many ways resembles a typical once-industrial city that is past its prime.  But is it, really?  A superficial ...

Abu Dubai: A City Never Founded Yet Meant to Be

Todd Reisz | Posted 05.25.2011 | World
Todd Reisz

Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two Emirati cities separated by only 120 km of highway, seem to be simultaneously competing and yet prepared to help each other out.

FILM: Is Brazilian Film The Future?

Lauri Lyons | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Lauri Lyons

This year's Premiere Brazil film festival hosted by the Museum of Modern Art and the Rio Film Festival produced a line up of films that can best be described as the art of social activism.

Urban Design, the Book: Part Two of a Review

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Frank Gruber

A few weeks ago, I concluded Part One of this review of the book Urban Design by referring to Joan Busquets' citation of ten eclectic "contemporary approaches" to urbanism to illustrate the viability of urban design today.

Village Green: Birmingham Neighborhood Takes a Stand for Walkability

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

This is emblematic of struggles across the country to establish walkable urban districts in historic neighborhoods that would be undermined by automobile-oriented, suburban-style establishments.

Village Green: With the Oil Spill, What Will Become of Pass Christian?

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
F. Kaid Benfield

      “You’ve probably had your last really good Pass Christian oyster for a while,” Captain Louis Skrmetta of Ship...

The American Garmento: An Endangered Species in its Natural Habitat

Jenni Avins | Posted 08.01.2011 | New York
Jenni Avins

Gave a peek into New York City's Garment District's nooks and crannies via a few little videos, for a glimpse at the American Garmento -- an endangered species in its natural habitat.

Urban Design: Good Book, Unfortunate Field?

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Frank Gruber

Urban Design is an excellent guide to both the history of Urban Design as a field and today's conflicts both within and without.

Made in Midtown: Meet Jason Wu

Tom Vanderbilt | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
Tom Vanderbilt

Jason Wu is describing his recent visit to the Smithsonian to watch his one-shouldered, intricately embroidered dress be inducted into the museum's collection.

The End of Central Planning?

John Petro | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
John Petro

The private sector is motivated by profit, and the means with which the private sector expresses this motivation are often at odds with what is best for a city and its inhabitants.