Christie Oostema, Planning Director at Envision Utah said in a recent podcast that she hopes to see Salt Lake City become an incubator for new urbanism projects. The city has succeeded in developing a few new urbanism projects already. These developments are the best ones to see while attending CNU21. CNU21 is this year’s annual Congress for the [...]
This is the third post in a three-part series reviewing and summarizing the CNU21 suggested reading list. CNU21 is this year’s annual Congress for the New Urbanism conference and will be held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah May 29th through June 1st, 2013. The first review and summary discussed, “Cities [...]
This post summarizes the CNU21 Preview Podcast, “Thinking Globally, Building Locally.” CNU21 is this year’s annual Congress for the New Urbanism conference and will be held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah May 29th through June 1st, 2013. For this podcast preview, John Norquist, the current President of the Congress for [...]
Combining infrastructure and public art is something I’m passionate about. It just seems so obvious, both aesthetically and financially, to combine the two harmoniously. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho has accomplished just that. Coeur d’Alene (“KOR-duh-LANE”) Idaho is about a forty-five-minute drive East on I-90 from Spokane, Washington. The two cities and their suburbs are considered the same metro area [...]
This is the second post in a three-part series reviewing and summarizing the CNU21 suggested reading list. CNU21 is this year’s annual Congress for the New Urbanism conference and will be held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah May 29th through June 1st, 2013. The first book review and summary discussed, [...]
This is the first post in a three-part series reviewing and summarizing the CNU21 suggested reading list. CNU21 is this year’s annual Congress for the New Urbanism conference and will be held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah May 29th through June 1st, 2013. “Cities of the American West: A History [...]
Previously, we discussed urban parks and how cities can mitigate issues created by time and light circumstances. Then, we discussed passive and active community depreciation in rural parks. The differences, struggles, and advantages of and between rural and urban parks are obviously significant. Rural parks departments don’t have the large tax base large city parks [...]
Previously, we discussed urban parks and how cities can mitigate issues created by time and light circumstances. This week we’ll be examining rural parks. Cheney, Washington, about 20 minutes outside of downtown Spokane, Washington. is home to Eastern Washington University, and maintains a classic, rural university town setting. During the day, Cheney’s park system is [...]
How does time and light affect our urban parks? During the day, Spokane, Washington’s Riverfront Park is filled with children and their parents on the giant “Radio Flyer” statue/playground equipment piece, cyclists and runners on the paved paths, elderly folks watching the geese in the Spokane River which runs through the middle of the park, [...]
Science centers matter because they encourage some of the most memorable out-of-classroom learning experiences both throughout and after childhood. The imagination has an opportunity to explore itself, and ideas have the opportunity to linger in these non-profit havens. No matter how large or small, entire regions flock to these venues with reason: with each visit, [...]
Becoming a new urban cyclist can be extremely intimidating. But armed with some basic knowledge, anyone can become a confident urban cyclist. In the midst of speeding cars, semi trucks, unregulated intersections, and ignorant motorists, situations can go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. The safest way to go about cycling in [...]
Spokane, WA is one of the most car-centric and sprawling cities I know. It’s also where I fell in love with cycommuting, or commuting by bicycle. Commuting or running errands by bicycle is possible without much or zero supporting infrastructure; you just need to choose your path wisely. If you know the basics of cycling [...]
Teens and young adults want to go out with their friends, and they like to stay out as late as possible. That’s a fact of life. But where do most of these teens and young people spend their time? Preferably somewhere they can park their hand-me-down, four-wheeled, newfound freedom machine: the automobile. But, their weekend [...]
Gonzaga University (GU) has been in the same location across the river from downtown Spokane since its opening in 1887. GU is within a 20-minute walk from downtown, and maintains a balanced mix of park-like campus setting with just a few urban touches thrown in. Gonzaga University has grown and evolved with the city, and [...]
Today, Spokane, Washington and Portland, Oregon are home to multiple universities, both public and private. They also have a reputation with their locals for having quality live performances and concerts featuring local, as well as popular, artists. Both have their respective small coffee roasters that most residents are loudly proud of, Stumptown and Thomas Hammer. [...]
In Spokane, WA, the hot button topic of the moment is something that affects everywhere from rural Wyoming and Montana, to the US/Canadian border city of Bellingham, WA,, to China: coal shipment. Essentially, the region is at least 3-5 years away from having a final environmental impact statement, let alone the approval for the port [...]
Wheels of Progress, a 501(C)3 organization, has a simple mission “to create affordable, accessible, supportive housing and transformative environments for people with physical disabilities.” One may not have guessed this noble cause from first impressions of its website. Here are a few suggestions to update and modernize, Wheels of Progress: 1. “Splash pages” or “splash [...]
For over a decade, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has given professionals and students in architecture, landscape, and urban design the opportunity to compete across multiple categories for the annual CNU Charter Awards. The Charter Awards honor a select number of winners, honorable mentions, and two grand prize winners: one professional and one [...]
Spokane’s university presence is synonymous with Gonzaga’s basketball fame. But there are many other universities trying to take their place as downtown powerhouses in Spokane’s economic future: Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and Whitworth University are the largest stakeholders at the Riverpoint campus. So, how are things changing for this conglomerate of satellite campuses? [...]
Metropolitan areas always have a dominating, bustling municipality at the heart. These regional strongholds, with their loud industrial and commercial districts in which crime is common, soon sprouted the desire in residents to get the heck out of there and move outwards to a cheaper, suburban lifestyle. A “stronghold” is a larger, older municipality than [...]
