In the course of the last decade, American river cities have sustained continued interest from policy makers and urban planners who have worked to create targeted opportunities for significant long-term investment and economic development. In Cincinnati, this reinvestment has received national attention in terms of how the city has been able to connect environmental design [...]
In my opinion, the future of building is building up. The use of multifunctional buildings to conserve space is a necessary component of smart urban planning for the future. While many large East Coast cities within the U.S, as well as many cities internationally have adopted this practice, there is definite improvement to be had [...]
In rapidly developing and changing cities, creative spaces are often given low priority compared with other more lucrative ventures. In Shanghai, the art district of M50 has become an international creative cluster over the years. Located along the South banks of the Suzhou River just north of the city’s center, M50 is a collection of [...]
Nested in California’s East Oakland is a culturally vibrant neighborhood known as Fruitvale. In 1999 the city began construction on a transit-oriented development project called Fruitvale Village, which was completed in 2004. This successful urban planning initiative exemplifies smart-growth, as it brings transit, commercial and residential sectors into one small area while preserving the unique character [...]
When one thinks of a park, one usually imagines a large plot full of trees in the centre of the city with routes for walking or jogging, and shaded sitting areas where people can enjoy the fresh breeze during the hot summer days. But what happens in cities, like Thessaloniki, Greece, in which green spaces [...]
Capacity utilization is a key term in business and an increasingly important term with regards to sustainability. The way in which cities utilise space is becoming a far more pressing issue in today’s world. The various ways space can be used inevitably forecasts a city’s future. In the United Kingdom, Nottingham leads the top twenty [...]
The Alley Flat Initiative is a collaborative project between the Gaudalupe Neighborhood Cooperation, the Austin Community Design and Development Center, and the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development. The initiative’s goal is to demonstrate affordable and adaptable housing types with efficient design and sustainable technologies. The alley flats are “small, detached residential units, accessed [...]
Is rapid transit a key factor to unleashing a city’s economic potential? A new report from accounting giant KPMG indicates that this is certainly the case for Vancouver, British Columbia’s Broadway Corridor. The Corridor is a ten-kilometer stretch of roadway that spans the length between historic Commercial Drive and the largest university in Vancouver, the [...]
A year ago, I lived in the Plateau-Mt. Royal neighbourhood of Montreal, Canada. One of the most densely populated parts of the city and a former working class neighbourhood, over the past few decades it has arguably become the hippest part of the city, with countless restaurants, bars and cafés and many beautiful parks. My [...]
What is the most effective method for rejuvenating neighborhoods that have seen chronic underinvestment for generations? This is a daunting question that major cities across the United States have struggled to answer for decades. While there may be no easy answer, the City of Chicago believes that they have developed a unique approach that will [...]
Easy access to a hospital is vital to a good hospital design. When we say “easy access,” we are referring to the ease with which cars and ambulances can access a hospital, especially considering emergency situations. Is this easy access concept possible for Athens, Greece – a city of approximately ten million people? Athens’s residents [...]
During the twilight of the 1880s, Cincinnati, OH, (the Queen City) was internationally celebrated as one of the most prolific centers for beer brewing in the United States. According to Michael D. Morgan, Author of Over the Rhine: When Beer was King, Cincinnati, during this pinnacle era, was chief among the Great American Brewing cities. The city [...]
Kalamazoo Public Schools is the school district neighboring the Portage Public School District that I graduated from. Portage is a suburb of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the most awful definition of that word, a small town established in 1963 because of white-flight from the city of Kalamazoo. Substitute teachers in the area, for some reason, felt [...]
Phoenix, Arizona is infamous for its sprawl, its little stucco boxes, and its dominant car culture. But an ambitious project spearheaded by the City of Phoenix, Arizona State University (ASU), and St. Luke’s Health Initiative called Reinvent Phoenix aims to change the way Phoenix’s light rail is developed around neighborhoods. The project is funded by [...]
For many urbanites, putting up with occasional construction is accepted as an unfortunate aspect of city living. In a rapidly developing city like Shanghai, however, it never stops. The construction of an ambitious redevelopment plan in the central area called “The Bund” will continue until 2020. First established as a British settlement area, The Bund [...]
The special characteristics of cities and the urban way of life have been of fascination to people for a long time. But what exactly does this idea entail? Urbanity is a concept that is classically associated with modernity, when inner-city industrial spaces became the new centers of living and working, leading to a population boom [...]
As a child in elementary school, you become subjected to such plays on words as rethink, reuse, and recycle. To you, as a child, it is fascinating and mind-numbing how the words work together. As the years fade though, so does the fascination with this play on words. Your once favorite buzz word recess has [...]
What happens when we run out of farmland, green recreation space, and forests that inhale carbon dioxide? An increasingly significant global problem is the amount of land and soil that is lost to urban development. With 70% of the world’s population expected to live in an urban area by 2050, efficient urban planning is essential [...]
Vancouver, British Columbia consistently ranks as one of the “most livable“ cities in the world. However, what is frequently ignored about Canada’s most livable city are the multiple suburb municipalities that surround it. The Metro Vancouver region is composed of twenty-two municipalities and a population of just under two million people, many of whom work and [...]
Since 2005, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has been actively working to develop a Regional Plan Update that supports the continued restoration of Lake Tahoe’s clarity and fosters land-use policies that promote sustainable growth. Facing pressure from the passage of Nevada Senate Bill 271, TRPA passed an update to it’s 1987 Regional Plan by [...]
