Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus is the official motto of Detroit meaning “We Hope for Better Things; It Shall Rise from the Ashes.” Adopted after the city of Detroit burned to the ground in 1805, Detroiters today are embracing these words and the city’s potential for and successful history of rebuilding and rebranding. ‘Detropia,’ the film [...]
The Month of May in Cincinnati celebrates cyclists & cycling in all forms – ushering in hundreds of events hosted by local bicycling advocates including the City of Cincinnati, Queen City Bike, Mobo Bicycle Coop and many other bike friendly businesses such as Park + Vine. This year, wheels are spinning, and gears are shifting [...]
In a time where you can buy almost anything online, Seattle’s Pike Place Market reminds us that character and convenience are not synonymous. It is a place that connects Seattleites (and tourists) to the city’s history. Beginning in 1907, the city’s first public farmer’s market was once nothing more than a few local farmers selling [...]
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 [...]
In 2012, Chicago residents were asked to participate in the process of planning the city’s cultural future. The city has long been home to world-class cultural venues, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as localized neighborhood cultural events and festivals. With the intention of expanding the tremendous cultural capital Chicago has, in [...]
As our cities grow, their transport needs become more complex. If we are lucky enough to live in established suburbs that have a legacy of schools, shops, and parks, our local communities and neighbourhoods may provide us with our basic needs and services, our social and work commitments. However, for most of us, meeting all [...]
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 [...]
Home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Museums and Library, Phipps Conservatory, and the expansive Schenley Park, Oakland, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a product of the City Beautiful movement. It is a center of knowledge, art, and culture, enriched by its civic spaces and ample greenery. The University of [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Tourists and residents flock to Florida’s metropolitan areas to enjoy bustling theme parks, cities that spill into the ocean, and shiny downtown high-rises. Still, just beyond the city limits, the Sunshine State remains much like it was only a few decades ago: ranches, rural communities, and endless acres of citrus groves. Like any other demographic, [...]
In Greece, during the last few years, a demand for transparency around food and a need to eliminate the intermediaries, mainly due to poor quality of products in combination to high prices, has resulted in a boom of collective action concerning the production and distribution of food. On the other hand, the proliferation of movements [...]
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 [...]
Miami has found its magic again. With the approval of Miami 21 in 2009, it accomplished an unprecedented feat and became the first major city to adopt a form-based code. With the motto, Your city, Your plan, Miami’s experiment is a solitary example of the importance of public support through outreach and marketing. Thanks to Miami [...]
In November 2012, San Francisco voters passed Proposition C, establishing a city-wide affordable housing fund on the enormous margin of 31%. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. In February 2012, Governor Brown of California, in an effort to slash the state budget, ordered the dissolution of all California Redevelopment Agencies. From an [...]
How do you achieve social equity and inclusiveness through urban planning? In order to answer this question, we must first define these terms. PolicyLink defines equity as such, “Just and fair inclusion. An equitable society is one in which all can participate and prosper. The goal of equity must be to create conditions that allow [...]
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 [...]
“There is growing concern for the issue of sustainability — whether the Earth’s resources will be able to meet the demands of a growing human population that has rising aspirations for consumption and quality of life, while maintaining the rich diversity of the natural environment or biosphere.” – American Planning Association (APA) Communities across the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
