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Architecture is a creative media that analyzes what is, while imagining what could and should be. Located in Los Angeles’ Art District, A+D Museum's current exhibit, The Architectural Imagination, is a showcase of re-imagining and rebuilding the outdated industrial urbanscape of Detroit... View full entry
Out of over 2,600 entries, a multi-disciplinary consortium led by Fernando Romero / FR-EE was recently announced as one of the 10 winning teams in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge with the proposal “Mexloop”, the 330-mile Mexico-Guadalajara route. The Mexloop project builds on Mexico's... View full entry
For all the concern about the gentrification, rising housing prices and the growing gap between the rich and poor in our leading cities, an even bigger threat lies on the horizon: The urban revival that swept across America over the past decade or two may be in danger. As it turns out, the much-ballyhooed new age of the city might be giving way to a great urban stall-out. — The New York Times
Richard Florida paints a gloomy picture of the state of the great American urban revival in his NYT op-ed, "The Urban Revival Is Over," citing gentrification, income disparity, rising crime numbers, unaffordable housing prices, and the anti-urban agenda of the current White House tenants. Joe... View full entry
Megacities—those urban centers crammed with more than 10 million people—would be well served to double down on their arboreal assets, according to a new paper in the upcoming issue of the journal Ecological Modeling.
A team of researchers led by Theodore Endreny of SUNY’s College of Environmental Studies and Forestry sought to quantify how leafy infrastructure pays dividends in 10 chock-full cities—and the extent to which those benefits could compound if those urban areas planted more trees.
— Citylab
You can check out the research paper here, as well as this 2015 report about the health benefits of more greenspace in urban centers. View full entry
What if new technology further exacerbates urban inequality, especially among those on the wrong side of the digital divide? [Geographer Federico Caprotti of the University of Exeter] sees the world heading toward a notion of a “new urban citizen”, one that continually provides data, which may leave out those who are unable or unwilling to contribute. — Citiscope
Citiscope interviews geographer and smart-city researcher Federico Caprotti, who co-wrote an academic paper in response to the U.N.'s approval of the New Urban Agenda last year. Caprotti shares his thoughts on the rise of the “new urban citizen”, as well as the hidden inequalities that... View full entry
50 Urban Blocks is the first in a collection of designing cards (available in English and Spanish) aimed to simplify architectural design, by a+t architecture publishers. This first set of cards contains 50 examples of how to design a block, how to organize space and ultimately how to build the... View full entry
But what is the repertoire of concepts, ideas and visions that inform the work of urban planners in the Global South — in Asia, Latin America and Africa? Are they still under the spell of their colonial and postcolonial masters? Or have they developed their own ideas and their own yardsticks, commensurate with the respective culture of their country and region? — citiscope.org
"This insight leads to the most important quality of sustainable urban planning in countries of the Global South," urban planning expert Einhard Schmidt-Kallert writes in his commentary piece on Citiscope, arguing that "Planners need to develop urban planning visions that take into consideration... View full entry
Another day, another city, another high line—this time in London. While in America, we use crowdfunding to help supplement health care costs or to actualize an invention, in England, Spacehive is using this form of alternative financing to help back projects that make local places better... View full entry
Now, although the horror is still raw and much about it is still unknown, it has also become clear that Grenfell exposes in the harshest possible way questions of the current state of social housing, about the accessibility, affordability and quality of homes, and their impact on people’s lives. — The Guardian
The Guardian's feature examines the new documentary Dispossession: The New Housing Swindle which addresses the build up anger surrounding the issue of affordable housing and the failed attempts at combatting it, including Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy policy and the effects of the 60s and... View full entry
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched for the latest civic development in North London; the Camden Highline. For years, the disused railway has been talked about among local residents, with many wanting to see a little bit of New York in Camden Town. Image Courtesy of Camden Town... View full entry
The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it.
The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago on June 14, comes in response to the rise of new LED street lighting sweeping the country. An AMA committee issued guidelines on how communities can choose LED streetlights to "minimize potential harmful human health and environmental effects."
— CNN
There are two basic issues at hand. First, new, "white" LED lighting, which have a color temperature of between 4000K and 5000K, can cause discomfort and glare. This is because the light is concentrate and has high blue content, which can cause severe glare and force pupillary constriction... View full entry
After five years in the works, HansonLA finalized the multi-phase master plan with the L.A. Department of City Planning to redevelop the historic City Market Los Angeles, located in Downtown L.A.'s Fashion District. Established in 1909 by a group of immigrant farmers, CMLA is home to one of the... View full entry
“In today’s political climate, we must affirm and ensure that New York City’s public realm provides places of refuge and play, congregation and demonstration, and dialogue and exchange.” — Design Trust for Public Space
In their latest community-driven effort, the non-profit Design Trust for Public Space recently launched “Public for All: Rethinking Shared Space in NYC”. The citywide call invites design firms, communities, agencies, and individuals based in any of New York City's five boroughs to send project... View full entry
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a 32-mile ring of parkland that surrounds Manhattan—or almost all of it, that is. Between 41st and 61st Streets along the East River lies a “glaring gap”, as The New York Times calls it. Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the city will spend $... View full entry
In Carmel, driving around in circles isn’t a symptom of being lost; it’s a way of life. Despite its small size, the Indiana city has more roundabouts than any other burg in the U.S. [...]
The thing most people don’t know is how much money is saved by converting traffic signals into roundabouts. Our city engineer’s office has found that on average, roundabouts in Carmel have cost $250,000 less to build than signalized intersections and they are much less expensive to maintain [...].
— citylab.com
While Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard talks about "unheralded benefits" of roundabouts (and the potential impact of Trump's infrastructure plans on his city's 102 roundabouts) in the CityLab article, reader douglasss points out an often overlooked benefit of this approach to intersection design over... View full entry
