The University of Cincinnati campus has grown significantly in recent years – earning national distinction for its campus transformation – achieved through successful visioning and leadership in the last decade. This growth, which has elevated the rankings and reputation of the university 17 points (to the top tier of national universities in 2011), has likewise [...]
Wednesday, June 5th at 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT Join Global Site Plans on Twitter on Wednesday, June 5th from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT for a live Twitter chat. This month’s topic is Social Equity and Inclusiveness. What’s a Twitter Chat? A Twitter chat is simply a preset, organized time to tweet on a pre-organized [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Global Site Plans (GSP) and The Grid would like to extend an opportunity to your business or organization to advertise on our website. As GSP and The Grid have grown immensely since their founding, less than three years ago, we are actively seeking companies congruent with our own philosophy who will benefit from advertising to [...]
In the summer of 2012 I was a fresh graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, trying to make my way into the working world. Having been an Urban Studies student minoring in Architecture, I was hopeful I would be able to find work in which I could apply my passion for urban development, [...]
When you think of tough neighbourhoods and burroughs like the Bronx in New York, or St Ann’s in Nottingham, you don’t necessarily equate them with energy efficient living. If you consider it living at all, it is most certainly not energy efficient living. However, it is in Nottingham England that city council has made an [...]
They say that when something is meant to be, you begin to see signs of it everywhere; life begins to push you in the direction you are supposed to go. I can certainly attest to this phenomenon in my experience with urban design. Once I discovered how strong my interest was in this field, I [...]
In a global economy, where places are in tight competition for investors, companies, workforce, and tourists, creating a place brand has become a powerful tool. Cities like Paris, London, and New York have distinctive features that tell a story about their urbanity, history and lifestyle. These images are commonly created not by accident, but are [...]
On the surface, the iconic 200-year-old urban grid of New York City’s Manhattan Island towers over the surrounding hinterland. John Randel Jr., who surveyed & engineered the future of NYC urban growth from 1818-1820, used hand drawn maps that effectively mapped out today’s modern metropolis. But New York City, like all cities, also carries a [...]
Global Site Plans has been an important part of my development as a writer and I am proud for having had the chance to work with Renée van Staveren and the crew there. My work as a master’s candidate at the University of Minnesota has exposed me to many of the issues that I wrote [...]
If the act of naming something validates its existence, the Dakota War of 1862 is overwrought with meaning. That same conflict, one that killed hundreds of whites as well as Native Americans, is variously referred to as Little Crow’s War, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Dakota Conflict, and [...]
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 [...]
Nearly a year ago I took on the adventure of blog writing to fuel my passion for urban planning and to help interested readers stay informed about local planning from a New Urbanism framework. I literally had no idea what I was doing as I dove into the online world of blogging. Soon after launching [...]
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 [...]
“Free parking is at the root of many urban ills: congestion, sprawl, wasteful energy use and air pollution.” – Donald Shoup, Parking may not be an obvious urban design issue, but it affects the traffic patterns, environmental health, and landscapes of our cities. As the population in Austin, Texas continues to skyrocket, the city certainly [...]
Just over a year ago, in October 2011, the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota revealed new plans for the redesign of historic Peavey Plaza. Those plans were scrutinized in the media and public outcry mourned the loss of such an iconic design. Today, this “Marvel of Modernism,” designed by noted landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg in [...]
The new wave in social media communication is quickly creating a method for discussing topics relating to urban planning, architecture, and community development. The social media site Twitter is leading the charge in this evolution by creating a way for people from around the world to gather in one centralized location to discuss and solve various [...]
In 2011, Ford closed their 122-acre St. Paul, Minnesota plant after 86 years of production. The community has developed around the plant and Ford’s impact on the area is a fixture of this cultural landscape. The closure of automotive plants in the US is not a new phenomenon: In the last 33 years, 267 of [...]
A healthy downtown is an important economic component for any city that desires to increase revenue, improve tourism, or revitalize local neighborhoods. Thus, the local downtown is by and large the life-blood of any metropolitan area. Like many other cities and small towns, urban planners from Richmond, Virginia have been working tirelessly to revitalize the [...]
