May 23 2013
May 23rd, 2013Posted by Renée van Staveren
Global Site Plans, branding for environmental design, specializes in branding for small and medium-sized architecture, engineering, environmental non-profits, landscape architecture, and urban planning companies. Global Site Plans’ expertise lays in environmental design sector website design, branding, internet marketing, social media, social marketing, and content services, for all your online and print media needs. Every weekday [...]
May 23 2013
May 23rd, 2013Posted by James Gardner
Without the usual fashion cycles of period architecture, vernacular architecture remains, as always, “immutable, indeed, unimproveable, since it serves its purpose to perfection” – or so Bernard Rudofsky, author of Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture, believes. Rudofsky’s brief foray into non-pedigreed architecture takes us across time and space, highlighting some [...]
May 22 2013
May 22nd, 2013Posted by Sophie Plottel
Over a decade ago, as the population of Shanghai soared, density was at an all time high and Chinese urban planners, realizing the city’s growth was unsustainable, they proposed a new solution to the problem: decentralization. The “1 city, 9 towns” project revealed in 2001 was proposed as a creative solution to the increasing urban [...]
May 21 2013
May 21st, 2013Posted by Robert Poole
Oakland continues to bring new development and innovation to its neighborhoods. Next up is the MacArthur Transit Village (MTV), an impressive urban planning initiative to be built in Temescal beside the MacArthur BART station. Much like Fruitvale Village, this transit-oriented-development (TOD) brings some much-needed land use planning to a space currently occupied by a massive [...]
May 16 2013
May 16th, 2013Posted by Maxwell Vidaver
Milan is rich in industrial history. A nearby site includes the former Innocenti factory, most notable for producing Lambretta Scooters in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The present service-oriented economy means that many old factory sites are claiming vast swaths of land, acting as holes in the urban fabric. Overcoming such obstacles is a contemporary theme [...]
May 14 2013
May 14th, 2013Posted by Luis Lozano-Paredes
In 2010, Siemens and The Economist published the first reliable index ranking for green cities worldwide. Among many other indexes concerning this subject published in the past few years, this is the first one with a specific chapter for Latin America. The result of this index showed a phenomenon that was clear to everyone but [...]
May 14 2013
May 14th, 2013Posted by Finbar Gillen
Global energy demand continues to grow and tidal wave energy generation devices can provide a significant source of renewable energy. Technological developments in offshore engineering, and the rising cost of traditional energy, means that offshore energy resources will be economic in the next few years. Tidal wave energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy [...]
May 10 2013
May 10th, 2013Posted by Geoff Bliss
American Legacy Tours – located at 1218 Vine Street in Cincinnati’s historic Over the Rhine (OTR) – has continued to gain popularity, media attention and distinction since their opening in 2008. The company, founded by a small group of friends, offers a diverse range of engaging walking tours through Cincinnati Heritage, legend and folklore. These [...]
May 07 2013
May 7th, 2013Posted by Alex Lenhoff
Florida is a state of dichotomies. Even after a decade of explosive population growth, much of the Sunshine State remains very rural. Coastal cities like Miami are home to the international super-rich, while just blocks away you can find families struggling to make ends meet. And, maybe most surprisingly, Florida – a state known in [...]
May 06 2013
May 6th, 2013Posted by Jasna Hadzic
With the recent news and onset of the Residential Demolition Program in Detroit, Michigan, or as termed by Jeff Byles, “demolition central,” the question and significance of historically significant demolition projects came to mind. In order to get to the bottom of this subject matter, one must pose an important question of whether the industry [...]
May 03 2013
May 3rd, 2013Posted by Dafni Dimitriadi
It is really disappointing that every time we think of schools, a rigid, concrete structure comes to mind. Even in kindergarten, some of us remember playing inside the building, rather than enjoying a large green playground. Hopefully, this won’t have to be the case for our children. A few months ago, the municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece, [...]
May 02 2013
May 2nd, 2013Posted by Maxwell Vidaver
Roaring crowds, bright lights, and elaborate shows are all part of the visceral human feeling we have at stadiums. For a long time, people have been fascinated by the experience of large performances. These concerts and sporting events, as well as their buildings, are essential components of the human experience. Looking at one of our [...]
May 02 2013
May 2nd, 2013Posted by Jennifer Garcia
Window shopping is a popular pastime – but have you ever noticed that some storefronts are simply better for on-foot shopping than others? While conventional retail has given higher priority to faster-moving automobile visibility, the traditional fundamentals of human-based storefront design are often overlooked. The success of local businesses, and the walkability well-designed storefronts promote, [...]
May 01 2013
May 1st, 2013Posted by Aascot Holt
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 [...]
May 01 2013
May 1st, 2013Posted by Alex Riemondy
Michael Sorkin is opinionated to the point, and passionate about protecting architecture from the politics that too often smother innovation. A well-known architectural critic, author of several hundred articles, professor, and principal of the Michael Sorkin Studio, Sorkin lives, eats — “architectural flesh has always proved tasty to me”, and breathes architecture and urban [...]
April 30 2013
April 30th, 2013Posted by Luis Lozano-Paredes
Built Environment professionals, myself included, tend to focus on the latest trends concerning sustainability, smart growth, and recent technologies for construction. Many times we end up relegating historical preservation and everything concerning Built Heritage Conservation as a métier only for experienced professionals, who embark on these projects as a way of closing their careers, as [...]
April 30 2013
April 30th, 2013Posted by Devon Paige Willis
Montreal is transformed by the seasons. During our hot summers, bars and terraces overflow with people, festivals bring crowds to the streets, and public spaces brim with locals and tourists. Winter is a different story. Large public spaces that are vibrant in the warmer months, like Place-des-Arts and Place Jacques-Cartier, are virtually abandoned when the [...]
April 26 2013
April 26th, 2013Posted by Amanda Bosse
How many high-tech corporations choose to locate their headquarters downtown? Very few. Often times we see corporate giants build their headquarters outside of city centers. Rather than following this trend and building a suburban campus, Amazon.com has decided to locate its headquarters in the South Lake Union Neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The three-block urban design [...]
April 26 2013
April 26th, 2013Posted by Meg Mulhall
Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo. Voltaire. Isaac Newton. These are some of the great thinkers that probably come to mind when you think of the Renaissance. But for some of us more versed in the history of the time, architect and sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi may be a familiar name. A native of Florence, Brunelleschi is often [...]
April 25 2013
April 25th, 2013Posted by Andrew Kinaci
In recent years we have begun to feel the effects of climate change the world over. In America, hurricanes like Superstorm Sandy and Katrina brought urban areas to their knees, killing people, destroying communities, and causing untold billions in damage. In this context, urban analyst and historian James S. Russell’s book The Agile City calls [...]
