Planning and Design
Collaborative Placemaking Maps
The other day on an urbanism listserv, someone asked for parameters to qualify a new development as a walkable, mixed-used, livable place. While measures like CNT’s H+T Index, Walkscore, and IMI’s Walkability Index go a long way toward measuring, there isn’t a single source that awards the title of Livable New Place.
Read MoreFaçade-ectomy: Preserving the skin of the past
Experiencing the most recent façade-ectomy in Winnipeg has left me asking again the much-debated question of the validity of preserving just the façade of a building. A façade-ecotomy will likely: Lose historic, cultural, architectural significance Waste embodied energy Increase cost of construction over full demolition Increase tax revenues over doing nothing Decrease long term viability…
Read MoreFair Trade Placemaking: Are you being compensated for your choices?
Over a decade ago Andrés Duany of DPZ taught me that, more times than not, NIMBY opposition stems from a sense that proposed development is not of equal or greater value to what would be lost. Tony Nelessen, the inventor of the Visual Preference Survey, confirmed this lesson a few years later when he came…
Read MoreGet your Multifamily into a Walkable Town Center!
Residences: An Obvious Ingredient One obvious yet undervalued ingredient of an effective mixed-use town center is the residential component. To emphasize its importance, I would go as far as to say that it is actually the substrate on which a healthy mixed-use environment is based. In a healthy, balanced region, with the exception of noxious…
Read MorePedestrian Malls are So 20th Century
I don’t like pedestrian malls. There, I said it. And it’s not because there aren’t some good ones, because clearly there are. Let me explain. By the mid 60s, America’s race to the suburbs had left many downtowns in tough shape. Once vibrant streets, alive with the sounds of community and commerce, began to find…
Read MoreDon’t Get Mixed Up on Mixed-Use
Taking a break from Geoff Dyer’s series on town centers this week with a refresher course on the simple elements of mixed-use development. Citizens, politicians, and planning officials have embraced the need to allow for walkable neighborhoods across North America and mixed-use is an essential component for achieving walkability. However, the term mixed-use has held…
Read MoreCommunity-Based Economic Development
This week my family enthusiastically celebrates both Canada Day and Independence Day, wishing Canada a happy 145th birthday, and the US a happy 236th. We honor the effective portions of the collective community vision that made these two nations great! The oldest continuously occupied settlements in each country are St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, at…
Read MoreGet Your Shops into a Walkable Town Center!
Shops: Everybody Wants ‘Em Last week we started this series off with Hotels, a sometimes overlooked, value-adding addition to a walkable town center. This week we are looking at one of the essential ingredients of a town center: the retail shops. The retail component of a town center is the most visible component, often defining…
Read MoreTools for Trickle Up Economics
Several years ago I had the fortune of collaborating with architect Teddy Cruz, artist Joyce Cutler-Shaw, and landscape architect Michael Sears on a study of San Diego’s rich history of creating Visionary Planning documents. Our documents included John Nolen’s 1907 and 1926 City Plans, Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard’s seminal 1974 shot-across-our-bow “Temporary Paradise?“, and Adel Santos’ 1993 “Urban Futures” plan…
Read MoreGet Your Hotels into a Walkable Town Center!
Series Overview While walkable mixed use town centers may not be the *easy* choice for the asphalt guy, the engineer, or even the developer who has to attract tenants to an environment they may not be as used to… they are certainly becoming best practices for sustainable community development. More importantly, they are quickly becoming…
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