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Public wants space not styleA new report by says that British policymakers are ignoring the wishes of local people and exaggerating the importance of "metropolitan" urban design in creating public spaces.
LA "loft" livingUrban living has become stylish in Los Angeles... Christopher Hawthorne checks out "how the concept of "loft living," has been transformed — some would say deformed beyond recognition — by coming into contact with Los Angeles." [images]
World's Top 100 Most Livable CitiesAh, another list... it's been a while since we Clipped one. A global ranking of the world's most livable cities based on 39 key quality-of-life issues. The list actually is 215 long... bottom of the list? Baghdad. The first US city shows up at 27. [slideshow]
Instant UrbansimCitified suburbs -- "a new form of the American Dream -- a new type of landscape where the lines between city and suburb blur in ever more complex ways." [images/video]
Back To The Future: The 1970 Los Angeles 'Centers' Concept Plan"Many say Los Angeles is a city that grew without any rational planning. In reality the planning was there -- but much of the best planning never quite materialized. A perfect example is the 1970 Concept Los Angeles plan -- a vision of what the city could have looked like and now a history lesson for planners. For the first time, it is available in digital format for free download on Planetizen."
Participatory UrbanismA work by Eric Paulos, Ian Smith and RJ Honicky that turns the mobile phone into a "networked mobile personal measurement instrument."
Edible City - Part 1A two part visit to Edible City, an exhibition currently running at the NAI. Where does your food come from? Where has it been? "Dutch pigs are processed into Parma ham in Italy and then sold back the country as an Italian product." Edible Cities explores ways to enable city-dwellers to meet their own food requirements.
Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit."Frustrated by a bruising, and so far unsuccessful battle to open its first discount store in the nation’s largest city, Wal-Mart’s chief executive said yesterday, “I don’t care if we are ever here.”"
A Glimpse of a More Vertical Los AngelesIs Playa Vista (LA's New Urbanist village stranded on the West Side) the harbinger of LA's future?
Good Malls and Bad CitiesTime to revisit a perviously favorite subject of ours (L+L 4/6/2005 "The Mall Goes Undercover" is a good place to start) -- "New quasi-urban shopping centers and the digital public sphere call into question traditional hatred of malls."
Robert Moses Shaped Modern New York, for Better and for Worse"He played with New York rather the way a little boy will build cities with blocks and toys and Matchbox cars." A current exhibition, "Robert Moses and the Modern City," is currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art and the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University.
Competition names winner to revive Toronto squareThe team comprised of Plant Architect Inc., with Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners (architect); Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc. (landscape architect); Adrian Blackwell (design collaborator); Blackwell Bowick Partnership Limited (structural engineer); and Crossey Engineering Ltd. (mechanical and electrical engineers) has been selected to redesign Nathan Phillips Square.
Swedish Town Uproots to Save Itself From DisasterA century of extracting iron ore from underground has weakened the bedrock under the town of Kiruna, Sweden. They plan to move much of the 23,000-person city (including the entire town center, which includes the railroad, a highway and the city's water and sewage system) to a spot 1.25 to 2.5 miles northwest of its current location.
Twenty Years of Shaping Civic DesignA discussion among mayors about the impact of politics on city design and the future of urban development in America's cities.
New German community models car-free livingThe Vauban development is an environmentally friendly neighborhood and successful experiment in green urban living built on a former military base in Germany.
The Risks of Too Much CityEconomist Jeremy Rifkin writes about the [over]urbanization of the world.
The American Mall: Now The Public Space Of Choice?"The new form of the shopping mall -- lifestyle centers -- are fulfilling the original destiny of the American mall by "re-creating the essence of urban life", writes Virginia Postrel in a Los Angeles Times opinion." However, she does not address or recognize the implications of giving up public space to the private domain...
Shanghai Urban Development: The Future Is Now"China is now undergoing one of the most massive urbanizations in human history, and nowhere is that more evident than in Shanghai." (See also Xintiandi, L+L 8/3/2004 & 11/17/2004).
Revenge of the Small"Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver are creating strategies to encourage the development of modest, more affordable houses."
European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs"Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results."
High performance infrastructureThe possibilities of urban streetscapes and landscapes that work to treat stormwater, recharge groundwater, and that add encourage biodiversity. (PDF)
The blueprints of urban unrest"Were the riots on the edges of French cities caused, in whole or in part, by the utopian-intentioned housing enclaves...?"
Can The U.S. Learn From The Slow City Movement?"With its emphasis on good food, sustainable living, and local community, the Slow City movement is spreading across Europe. But what potential is there for the movement to make the jump across the Atlantic?"
Joel Kotkin is a New UrbanistEither he doesn't understand New Urbanism, or he is pulling a bait and switch to blatantly steal its ideology. Either way, he's a New Urbanist... and a blowhard.
IDEO's Urban Pre-Planning"IDEO is messing with the DNA of the planning process. They’re changing it from a concrete process of infrastructure and building to an imagined one of narrative and identity; they’re exchanging the idea of a place for place itself."
Reinventing the wheelA concept for stackable electric cars as part of an integrated urban transportation system to solve the "last mile" problem of getting home from a central hub.