Climate Buildings
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Crazy Europeans think people are more important than cars
All across Europe, urban policy is shifting to favor humans over automobiles. What are they thinking? The New York Times takes a look.
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Bike lanes create jobs
The title of this post should really be "Bike lanes create jobs, duhhhhhhhhhh." A new study from the University of Massachusetts is only the latest evidence that bike infrastructure projects create more jobs than road infrastructure -- but the message hasn't gotten through to everyone, so with UMass' help we'll just keep beating that horse. Anyway, the latest study shows that bike and pedestrian projects generate 46 percent more employment than roads. So, you know, no big deal, just HALF AGAIN AS MANY JOBS.
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The American suburbs are a giant Ponzi scheme
Our current pattern of autocentric development does not create real wealth. It creates the illusion of wealth. Today we are in the process of seeing that illusion destroyed, and with it the prosperity we have come to take for granted.
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In London, bike commuters now the majority in some places
Cyclists make up more than 50 percent of the traffic on some busy London commuter routes. But as in New York, two-wheeled travelers still have an image problem to overcome.
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Make cities, not war
Mayors from around the country are wondering why we're building bridges in Kandahar when bridges at home are falling to pieces.
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Repairing our broken cities by transforming infrastructure
Can landscape architecture fix the blight created by outdated and destructive transportation infrastructure?
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As suburban office parks lose steam, Apple unveils the ultimate example
Back to the future in the Apple spaceship.Screenshot: Apple via YouTube The old-school suburban office park seems to be having a midlife crisis. A special report in Crain’s about Chicago-area businesses such as Sears, AT&T, and Sara Lee looking to relocate from the suburbs to the urban core — along with the news that Swiss […]
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How to fight obesity and climate change at the same time
In Louisville, Ky., projects that might normally pitched as good for the planet are being funded because they're good for people, too. Money from private and public investors is going towards building bike lanes, funding community gardens, and increasingly walkability in low income neighborhoods. The motivation behind the investments is not to reduce carbon emissions, […]
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An Indian boom city grows without planning, at its peril
In Gurgaon, gleaming residences, malls, and office buildings are like islands unto themselves.Photo: iamgurgaonYou hear a lot of people talking these days about small government. About letting the free market drive development. About how city planners are trying to do some kind of sinister social engineering. About how the feds and the states should just […]
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Which part of Detroit really needs to be ‘right-sized’?
Photo: Trey CampbellCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. At the bottom of this post are two short videos about Detroit, both featuring architect and planner Mark Nickita, principal of the city’s Archive Design Studio and a lifelong Detroit resident. In a very refreshing change from the mind-numbing negativity one usually hears about the city, Nickita […]
