As Greece faces an economic recession, the country’s creditors have asked the government to move ahead with the privatization of major companies. It is believed that this process will offer the country economic sustainability. OSE, the Greek company in charge of railway transport, is one of these major companies. The solution suggested by the Greek government, [...]
A big Global Site Plans welcome to our newest blogger, Michael Jenkins from Nottingham, England. An Oakland, California native, Michael Jenkins is a recent post graduate from the University of Nottingham Business School with a Masters in Business Administration. Jenkins’ interest in urban regeneration and town planning sprouted during a visit to China. It was [...]
Months of inspiration for government officials and urban planners are coming to a head in Detroit with the recent introduction of the Future City initiative. Next on the city council’s agenda is a decision on the proposal to sell the Belle Isle park to entrepreneurs for $1 billion. Real estate developer Rodney Lockwood has pitched [...]
Will a district characterized by its piers and warehouses become the vibrant “live-work-play urban neighborhood” imagined by the Hawaiian Community Development Authority? The HCDA selected Forest City Hawaii to design, develop, and manage 690 Pohukaina; a Hawaiian contemporary, mixed-use complex meant be the hallmark of the new Kaka’ako. Forest City Hawaii is a subsidiary of [...]
Orlando, Florida’s downtown is undergoing what you might call a “residential renaissance.” As one of the leaders in this national trend, Orlando is seeing faster growth in its downtown than in its suburbs. Economists suspect thousands of apartment units will be added to Orlando’s urban core over the next four years, with a handful of [...]
Outside of the city of Hamburg, Germany, lies a piece of land that is hard to get to via public transport, on a street which usually appears deserted. Surrounded on both sides by containers, trucks, and industrial storage spaces, it is not what you would normally call an urban, livable place. But then you look [...]
Metaxourgio is a residential area of west-central Athens, in close distance to square Omonia. The vicinity’s current urban characteristics stem from its industrial past, which, today, is composed of a big reserve of empty unused buildings, open spaces, small traditional cafés, craftsmen’s workshops on the ground floors of residential buildings, and half-abandoned buildings. Metaxourgio is [...]
After decades of disinvestment and decline, Mid-Market Street in downtown San Francisco seems to be finally headed toward revitalization. Plywood has come off vacant storefronts, sidewalks are filled with pedestrians headed to work, and loud sounds of construction serve as an unfamiliar soundtrack for the historically troubled neighborhood. How did this happen? It’s fairly clear [...]
Detroit’s downfall is a storied urban planning nightmare. One largely important factor in the city’s decline is the rapid population exodus it continues to experience. Population loss has resulted in vast amounts of vacant, government-owned land. But what is the solution for a bankrupt city that is the owner of more vacant lots than it [...]
In July of 2012, Target opened a brand new location in downtown Chicago, in architect Louis Sullivan’s famed Carson Pirie Scott building. Critics were left to wonder if the landmark building’s character could be preserved with such a corporate tenant, yet the remarkable cast-iron façade remains intact, and the exterior corporate branding is less obtrusive [...]
Want to grow your veggies and eat them, too? While, until recently, the idea of combining urbanity with gardening seemed like a strong contradiction, urban gardens have started popping up in central city spaces around the world. One of the pioneering urban gardening projects is Prinzessinengarten in Berlin, Germany. Since summer 2009, this central Berlin [...]
The new regulatory master plan for the metropolitan area of Athens/Attica 2021 is a ten-year plan of interventions and urban policies founded on the basis of three major pillars – Economy, Society and Environment, while complying with the European directives for cities with compactness. On the other hand, during the last three years, under the [...]
Wow, how fast time does fly! It seems like only yesterday that I was signing my first set of paperwork to do my internship with Global Site Plans. Initially, I must admit that I was a little nervous about doing an internship with Global Site Plans because I feared that I could not produce quality [...]
In 2012 Pennsylvania passed Act 13, an act which mandated that local governments must allow drilling in all zoning districts and cannot ban or restrict gas development. Act 13 limits local government control and allows only individuals who own land and mineral rights in counties to participate in drilling decisions that will affect their communities. [...]
Brownfield remediation is becoming a common process in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. A few miles from the heart of one of the more successful projects – Mill Ruins Park – lies UMore Park (University of Minnesota Outreach, Research, and Education), a planned 5,000-acre development for 25,000 people in eco-friendly homes and neighborhoods. Sadly there [...]
In Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, on May 24 2012, the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT), the Greek Center for Research and Technology along with the municipality of Thessaloniki, and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, presented the project “You are a click away.” This project will suggest intelligent, environmentally-friendly, and sustainable transportation solutions to citizens of [...]
One of the most iconic viewsheds in Minneapolis – hated by some, loved by others – are any that include the Riverside Plaza apartments. From many places in the city you can see the Brutalist concrete buildings, with their primary-color panels and blockish tower-structure, towering above their surroundings. In 2010, Riverside Plaza was included in [...]
A typical three-story walkup building in Chicago Urban planners the world over recognize that affordable housing is crucial for neighborhood stability, as well as workforce diversity and the economic sustainability of a given region. But in the summer of 2012, the tight rental market in major cities like Chicago meant that landlords could get record [...]
The Mayor, urban planners, and economists agree: creative industries are key to Berlin’s economic development. In a city that doesn’t rely on larger industrial facilities, that holds a special position due to its historical heritage, that was perceived as an island for decades – music, film, and new media industries have started to settle; building [...]
In June 2010 The Hershey Company announced project “Next Century,” a modernization program that would result in an investment of $200-225 million plant expansion of the existing West Hershey facility and approximately $50-75 million in upgrades to distribution and administrative facilities located in Hershey, PA. Part of the project involved ceasing production at the original [...]
