Category: Planning and Design
Reimagining Santa’s Village: A Transect-Inspired Holiday Wonderland
Santa’s Village has always been a symbol of festive magic and joy but, with thoughtful urban design principles, it can also serve as a model for timeless community building. This is surely appropriate given Santa's stature and the fact that the typical idea of Santa's Village has some sustainability and equity challenges... Continue Reading
Dwelling Small: Breaking down barriers to compact living
Despite the changing needs and priorities of an aging population, many US municipalities have restricted housing types that could help address the challenges of a generational shift. In this week's post, PlaceMaker Susan Henderson explores housing approaches outside the norm of the single family home. Abergavenny, a charming... Continue Reading
Tags housing, Susan Henderson
Green Infrastructure: Let’s get spongy!
Green infrastructure encompasses a range of innovative, nature-based solutions, such as green roofs, rain gardens, permeable pavements, and bioswales. These approaches work in harmony with the environment to manage stormwater, reduce urban heat island effects, and promote biodiversity. By integrating green infrastructure... Continue Reading
Tags Hazel Borys, Resilience
Shelter in Place: Working in a time of isolation
In this time of social distancing without a clear time frame, I’m feeling the need to share some of the things I’ve learned over 17 years of working from a home office. It’s clear that the novel corona virus will disrupt our previous ways of doing business, but it’s possible some parts of that may be good, eventually. Continue Reading
A New Path to Code Reform
The Users' Guide to Code Reform leads planners through the code reform process, providing tools for governments lacking the capacity to develop a full form-based code.
The Project for Code Reform is one of the most important efforts we’ve had the privilege of contributing to in the last decade. We’ve spent most... Continue Reading
The Human Scale
I recently watched The Human Scale again, a film from 2013, and felt the anticipation building to meet Jan Gehl at the 26th Congress for the New Urbanism (#CNU26) in Savannah next week, and at home in Winnipeg in September. I'm sure Jan will bring us an update on his city planning work in the last five years, but the ideas... Continue Reading
Tools to Stop Coming Up Short on Affordable Housing
In the weeks before the Congress for the New Urbanism conference in Savannah, GA, May 15-19, we’re presenting interviews with experts contributing to a day-long exploration of “Affordability: The Intersection of Everything.” A three-hour morning forum on Thursday, May 17, kicks off the discussion, followed by two... Continue Reading
The Science is In: The healthiest neighborhoods are both walkable and green
Most of us, most of the time, don’t make much connection between place – the neighborhoods where we live, work, and play – and our health. Not unless we’re thinking of such obvious local health concerns as an outbreak of infectious disease in the community, serious levels of pollution or toxicity nearby, or... Continue Reading
Moving Beyond “Smart Growth” to a More Holistic City Agenda
Originally published almost four years ago and every bit as relevant today.
I have spent most of the last twenty years working on an agenda grounded in, for lack of a better phrase, “smart growth.” That agenda basically holds that our regions must replace suburban sprawl with more compact forms of growth and... Continue Reading
Resolved for 2018: Fewer delusions, more reality-based planning
Okay, so we’re shaking off the shock therapy of 2017 and ready to move on, right?
Let’s start with admitting some of the stuff a lot of us got wrong about challenges and solutions in municipal and regional planning. Such as: Our misplaced overconfidence in the stability of basic institutions, especially those requiring... Continue Reading