urbanism
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Pop-up book brings kids' ideal green cities to life
Spanish design firm Play Studios asked kids to describe what they thought cities would look like in the future, then animated the kid-rendered cities in pop-up book form. There's plenty of fantasy here, but these budding urbanists also have an eye for connected, sustainable, eco-friendly living. Check out the monorails running between buildings in Boscopolis, or the cars in Bright City that run on fallen leaves.
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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Can landscape architecture fix the blight created by outdated and destructive transportation infrastructure?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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A new generation says Dallas doesn’t have to suck
Yesterday I wrote about an emerging “new New Urbanism” — solutions for cities that are fast, cheap, nimble, flexible, and open-source. What does that look like in action? Let’s look at a specific example. Some cities have great public buildings, designed at a grand but human scale, that foster civic engagement and a sense of […]
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The new New Urbanism: Fast, nimble, flexible, and tactical
Creating the new New Urbanism, on the street in Madison, with plenty of beer.Photo: Aurash KhawarzadLast week, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) held its 19th annual meeting in Madison, Wisc. You may not have heard of the CNU, but you have almost certainly seen its influence in American development. The movement — which […]
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A Seattle development that is greener than green
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Leave it to a city famous for coffee and rain to produce possibly the best example of transit-oriented urbanism, natural public space, and green stormwater infrastructure I have ever seen. This Seattle redevelopment is green in so many ways that it is hard to know where to start. […]
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A yarn bomb in Hell’s Kitchen [VIDEO]
Yarn bombing — covering stuff on the street with crocheted or knitted cozies — has become a common enough practice that it merited the dreaded “trend” treatment in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago. That doesn’t mean that it can’t still be very cool. And this little video is about an especially […]
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Great places: smart density as part of economic flourishing
Bring people together in a great place and great things happen.This is part four in a series on “great places.” Read parts one, two, three, and five. So far I’ve written that great places are green and groovy. (Yeah, I said groovy.) Lest I make the whole notion sound like a smelly commune, though, it’s […]
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Tea Party reveals: ‘Sustainable Development’ is sinister attempt to destroy American Dream
Did you know that the seemingly geeky, mild-mannered profession of urban planning is actually a breeding ground for social engineers — part of a sinister international plot to rob you of your American Dream? Well wake up already, people! The East Bay Tea Party is here to tell you all about it. They have the […]