Spokane, Washington is proud of its enormous waterfalls smack dab in the middle of the urban core, surrounded by Riverfront Park. It’s the only park in Spokane that encourages non-park uses such as movie watching at an almost 50-year-old originalwrap-around style IMAX theatre, riding classic amusement park rides like the tilt-a-whirl and ferris wheel, and [...]
June Mountain is located approximately 20 miles (31 kilometers) north of the town of Mammoth Lakes, California. Opened in 1961, the ski area provides the economic epicenter of June Lake, CA, a small, unincorporated community in Mono County. Unfortunately, on June 21, 2012, the day that the mountain was supposed to open for summer activities, [...]
“Whether we look closely or not, great art in public spaces improves our quality of life in Minneapolis every day,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak of the Minnesota Public Radio’s Sound Point project launched in 2011. Sound Point is an engagement of people and art, a dialogue between artist and viewer, and a multimedia experience inspired [...]
The growing housing crisis in America has had a great impact on Richmond, Virginia’s housing market. Since the beginning of the housing collapse in 2008, the wealthier 1% of the nation’s households have seen great success, while the remaining 99% of the nation have seen 1 in 667 housing units become foreclosed since June 2012. [...]
The cultural landscape of the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area in Minnesota is largely influenced by historic large-scale agriculture, but that landscape is continuing to evolve to include new forms based on traditional, small-scale farming. One of the most prevalent expressions of that is the presence of Hmong farms within the metropolitan area. The Twin Cities [...]
Spokane, Washington was given the land for its wastewater treatment plant and Riverside State Park by an affluent citizen in his will in the first half of the 20th century. He designated the land’s division and only allowed the City to keep the land if they used it for those sole two reasons. The only [...]
Since their initiatives began, the Mass Housing Administration (MHA) has constructed more than 500,000 housing units all over Turkey, all with the same standards, causing identical residential buildings. In order to change this approach, Erdoğan Bayraktar, the former president of MHA, stated that “we need some standards and approaches to decrease costs and increase human comfort in mass [...]
Michel Foucault (October 1926- June 1984) was a French philosopher and activist, pivotal in the conception of contemporary postmodern theory. They are bred in the suburbs, and then sent to school. They attend Duke University, North Carolina State University, and University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. They are pumped with pertinent education, and then are [...]
Your firm can use the popular professional networking site LinkedIn for much more than your standard Facebook ‘like’ page. Facebook is casual and is viewable by all whom may be interested in your firm. LinkedIn provides a professional atmosphere online with many specific tools and resources to help your business and employees. Here are four tips [...]
Everyone wants to recycle, but what would you do if it was mandatory? California Bill AB 341, directed by CalRecycle, will go into effect on July 1, 2012 and will require commercial recycling within California state limits. The Town of Mammoth Lakes is providing education and outreach in an effort to help the community adjust [...]
Though only recently decriminalized, urban farming and beekeeping endeavors are quickly gaining a foothold in the contemporary landscape of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In order to increase the sustainability and efficiency of urban land use, while also promoting the local food system, the City of Minneapolis is currently implementing several changes: Amending zoning laws to permit market [...]
Those pesky Brownfield sites can create great opportunities or can be worrisome problems. In Richmond, Virginia Brownfield sites can be found in many locations throughout the city. Brownfield sites are defined as “old abandoned industrial properties where potential hazardous or unsafe materials might exist.” Over time, brownfields can infect a community with major problems like [...]
The City of Spokane, Washington implemented two of their first-ever SURGE (Spokane Urban Runoff Greenways Ecosystem) projects in 2010 with AHBL: Lincoln Street on the South Hill; [Bottom] [Official Surge Report]; Broadway Street in the West Central Neighborhood. [Top] [AHBL's Presentation to the City]. Both were the first of their kind in Eastern Washington, and [...]
Landfills within metropolitans create serious problems both because of environmental pollution and the large areas they cover in city territories. Today, several methods have been developed with the purpose of rehabilitating such areas. In Turkey, ITC Invest Trading & Consulting AG was the first company putting such applications into practice on behalf of the Ankara [...]
I have been a writer for The Grid for over a year and this will be my last writing. I am grateful to Renee Van Staveren, Global Site Plans, and The Grid staff for this opportunity. A lot has been learned through my own research and also through the writings of my peers. The topics [...]
It has been argued the cities in the Midwest are on the “decline.” Populations in urban centers like Detroit, Buffalo, and Cleveland are shrinking as old infrastructure decays. However, the newly relocated Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative takes an unorthodox approach to these “shrinking cities” and addresses the so-called problems as opportunities to engage in research [...]
Zoning, the main form in which land use is regulated in the United States, is a controversial form of urban planning. Property owners do not like being told what they can and cannot do with their land and view use restrictions as a violation of their property rights. Those in favor of zoning view it [...]
Urban transformation projects re-utilize degraded regions within the city by providing them new functionality, and in this way, increasing sustainability at the city scale. Hamamönü district is an example of such a transformation. The district is dominated by traditional civil architecture of the 19th century and has been standing in ruins in the center of [...]
Camelback Mountain is one of the many mountain ranges surrounding what Arizonians call “the valley”. The Valley is a flat area of Arizona desert that is home to 4 million of the state’s 6 million inhabitants. The valley includes Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Chandler, among others that, together, make up a sprawling [...]
Skateboarding is legally recognized as a “hazardous recreational activity.” While this categorization seems dour it is actually an interesting bit of legalese that enables cities to construct skate parks without fearing legal liabilities. Skate parks in North American cities are being constructed at a record pace. And in 2005 an organization of skaters, activists, and [...]
