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For August, Archinect has explored a variety of topics relating to the changing landscape of the city of Detroit, including new initiatives in design and public policy, academics, and architectural practice. As we near the end of the month, our focus turns to the architects... View full entry
Andres Sevtsuk’s Harvard Graduate School of Design studio—examined how LA might maximize the opportunities at stake. The studio sought strategies to creatively optimize investment in public transit in an increasingly hot market for private-sector services. How can technology complement, rather than compete with, public transit? And, as LA reshapes itself, can it improve equity, sustainability, and quality of life as it aggressively redevelops its transit systems? — Harvard GSD
Los Angeles's relationship to public transportation has grown to be a complicated affair. Between public and private organizations, local government, and private-sector technologies hoping to implement their "solutions" to the city's transit problem, where do we draw the line? With this... View full entry
Fifty years ago this summer, word reached New Orleans that John Volpe, secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Richard Nixon, had canceled the Riverfront Expressway—the high-speed, elevated interstate highway slated for the edge of the French Quarter. — Nola.com
Tulane University urban geographer Richard Campanella pens a lengthy remembrance for the failed Riverfront Expressway, a Robert Moses-designed highway that would have cut New Orleans off from its historic waterfront and the Mississippi River. The epic struggle to turn back the highway was... View full entry
Imposing tighter limits on leadfoots is a key part of the Vision Zero campaign for reducing traffic deaths and injuries, because of the dramatic safety benefits associated with reducing vehicle velocity. Does this add up to evidence that fast-paced Americans are ready to embrace the virtues of city life in the slow lane? — CItyLab
How fast is too fast? Cities like New York, Portland, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are initiating ways to regulate traffic speeds and install better signage to aid in pedestrian and bicycle safety. With the high number of reported traffic-related deaths and injuries only rising, cities are... View full entry
Research has shown that areas around fast-food restaurants are especially dangerous for pedestrians because drive-throughs require more driveways, which introduce potential points of conflict. Plus, drivers tend to be distracted just before they have ordered their food — and in the moments when they start driving away with it.
A Florida study found that each fast-food restaurant in a low-income block added an average of 0.69 pedestrian crashes every four years.
— Streetsblog
Streetsblog reports that as part of an ambitious comprehensive plan update, Minneapolis has outlawed the creation of new drive-through facilities within the municipality. The forward-looking Minneapolis 2040 plan will also do away with parking requirements and single-family zoning... View full entry
A widespread over-supply of parking in metro Boston residential developments is driving up the cost of housing and may encourage people to own cars who otherwise would not, according to a new study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. — CommonWealth
What’s the true cost of parking? In 2014, Sarah Goodyear wrote a piece for CityLab titled "How Parking Spaces are Eating Our Cities Alive" that provides a framework for answering the question. In her article, Goodyear discusses how the average parking space takes up about 300 square feet, or... View full entry
Eric Strain, architect and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, shared his goals and perspectives for revitalizing Downtown Las Vegas at the AIA Conference this year. During his presentation, Strain emphasized the developmental momentum Las Vegas has been brewing. Much of... View full entry
There is the vision of parks, and public space more generally, as space free from institutional control or coercion—from police, or parks ambassadors, and encroaching privatization. And then there is the vision of public space as controlled and orderly, for passive use, or for recreation and entertainment. 'Users of this space must be made to feel comfortable, and they should not be driven away by unsightly homeless people or unsolicited political activity...' — The Local
With the privatization of spaces steadily increasing the idea of a genuine public space seems to be an ideal of the past. The importance of public space, specifically public parks is an integral part of a thriving city and community. However, laws and new policies are being re-configured to... View full entry
Smart cities make two fundamental promises: lots of data, and automated decision making based on that data. The ultimate smart city will require a raft of existing and to-be-invented technologies, from sensors to robots to artificial intelligence. For many this promises a more efficient, equitable city; for others, it raises questions about privacy and algorithmic bias. — New York Times
Promises for a better, smarter city have flooded media headlines, but if these so-called "smart cities" are said to be the answer, can the general public adapt to these infrastructure dreams? In a recent piece by Shoshanna Saxe for the New York Times, the experienced civil and mineral engineer at... View full entry
New York native Maurice Cox is stepping down from his role this fall as Detroit's planning director. He's expected to take on a role as the top planning executive for the City of Chicago, a city official confirmed. — detroitnews.com
After four years at the helm of Detroit's planning department, Maurice Cox is headed to Chicago to serve as the city's top planning executive under the Windy City's new mayor, Lori Lightfoot. A Brooklyn native, Cox is an architectural designer, educator, and former mayor of Charlottesville... View full entry
This post is brought to you by EnBW Want to create a new vision for Stuttgart? EnBW, host to this open, 2-phased competition with the aim of implementation, is looking for outstanding concepts and urban designs for a disused industrial area (40.000 square metre) in the east of Stuttgart... View full entry
“We’re in the midst of new cities fever,” says Prof Sarah Moser. The head of the new cities lab at McGill University has documented more than 100 cities that have sprung up across Asia and Africa since the early 2000s for her forthcoming Atlas of New Cities. — The Guardian
The Guardian kicks off its new Cities from scratch series with an overview of noteworthy planned metropolises that are replacing big swaths of desert, jungle, or sea across Asia and Africa. While some new cities started out ambitiously but had to eventually give up on key features, others took... View full entry
U.S. engineering firm Aecom will manage the development of Neom Bay, part of a $500 billion mega city on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast [...]
The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is spearheading plans to develop Neom, a futuristic city being built from scratch, as part of the government’s plans to cut its reliance on oil and attract foreign investment.
— Bloomberg
Intentions for the planned Neom megacity were first announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, but Saudi Arabia's suspected involvement in the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year later caused international outrage and prominent international figures on the... View full entry
On top of climate change, cities grow hotter and hotter due to an increase in urban heat island effect. According to Philip Oldfield's Guardian piece, "What would a heat-proof city look like?," there are four solutions cities can implement to decrease rising temperatures. Oldfield explains green... View full entry
The University of California, Berkeley has named Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) founder Vishaan Chakrabarti as the new dean for the university's College of Environmental Design (CED). Chakrabarti comes to UC Berkeley after teaching at the Columbia University Graduate... View full entry
