A Placemaking Journal

Deep in an April 14 New York Times story on the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami was mention of an iPhone app called Yurekuru that gives warning of an impending quake. The name, said the Times, translates into English roughly as, “the shaking is coming.” Before the March 11 quake, the app attracted... Continue Reading

Okay, so I have a little problem. Since 1985 I’ve been a committed, out of the closet, Macoholic. I wrote my architectural thesis on an Apple IIe. Don’t do the math -- I’ll be fifty this year. A couple of months ago one of my business partners, Howard Blackson, suggested we find a way to use our iPhones and iPads... Continue Reading

For ten years I’ve been hanging around with a pretty interesting collection of traditional architects, planners and urban designers. That’s my job. Taking their inherent disciplinary wonkdom and simplifying it for wider appreciation. Doing so means I’m frequently on the sidelines as they work, and a consistent witness... Continue Reading

What is it about a place that engages one so fully that years after moving away, a return trip feels as if you’ve never left? As if you never want to leave? It’s the elusive immersive environment we urban design types are always aiming to achieve. Beware. A personal reverie is heading your way, to help answer that... Continue Reading

This morning I took a moment to reflect upon the challenges and tragedy of the past year -- BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well, Aussie wildfires, the Christchurch and Haiti earthquakes -- until, as a Californian, my mind inevitably drifted back to current events in Japan and their nuclear radiation currently floating its... Continue Reading

So I’m checking out the debut of the Onion News Network and two things occurred to me: First, sadly for the Onion writers, cable news is inoculated against parody. What passes for news and analysis on most cable shows satirizes itself. Hence Jon Stewart’s brilliant strategy of curating and juxtaposing actual news... Continue Reading

In 1992, Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha offered a dire warning to a restless but aimless Generation X: “If we don’t take action now,” he sang, “we’ll settle for nothing later.” An anthemic rallying cry and yet, just ten years thereafter, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard was introducing those... Continue Reading

I just heard from a colleague who had a developer tell him something along the lines of: "New Urbanism is too risky and too expensive because, you know, Kentlands failed." That’s not an uncommon belief. What is uncommon, however, for anyone on the receiving end of such broad brush generalizations, is an easy response... Continue Reading

Federal government to sustainability efforts: You're terminated. In a blockbuster-style showdown, the House Appropriations Committee started a furor this month as they proposed the elimination of HUD, USDOT and EPA sustainability programs in 2011-12, as well as suggesting the rescinding of dollars already awarded by... Continue Reading

More than three decades ago, sociologist Ernest Becker published The Denial of Death which made the argument that the fear of death, in all its irrevocability and finality, provides a unifying, baseline reality for humans. We may be overwhelmed and confused by an increasing number of competing “truths,” wrote Becker,... Continue Reading