The New Incrementalism
The latest design trend appears to be designing a place to be realized in very gradual stages. Not in terms of planning for phases of development pods, built-out in a predetermined sequence, but about individual lots changing — evolving — over time. Very rarely now are we designing to build immediately for a project’s absolute…
Read More“The Joel Salatin of Homebuilding”: Revisiting Clay Chapman’s multi-century, $80/sq. ft. house
“You [..] have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit.” — Joel Salatin, author and renegade farmer Anyone who’s paid even modest attention to what’s been happening on the food scene over the past five or six years has surely heard of Joel Salatin. Featured prominently in Michael…
Read MoreForm-Based Codes? A picture’s worth a thousand words
If the attendees list of Placemaking@Work, my monthly webinar series, is any indicator, we’re increasingly united in our desire to improve the places we call home, wherever those places might be. Over time, I’ve had participants from Hawaii to Russia, from British Columbia to Saudi Arabia, and many points in between. The common thread among…
Read MoreReady for the Geezer Glut? Then think beyond “aging in place”
Among the Big Issues awaiting communities after we shake off the post-recession blues is what to do about demography. Particularly the part about America’s aging population. The first-borns among the 76-million-strong Baby Boomer generation reached 65 in 2011. And over the next three decades, the geezer slice of the population pie will swell to 20…
Read MoreSeven Keys to Stronger Community
In sustainability’s triple bottom line of profits, planet and people, it’s people that tend to get the shaft. There’s an entire industry surrounding environmental advocacy and we can always count on business interests to fight for stable economies, but what about the social resilience of our communities? Personally, I consider the social leg to be…
Read MoreOde to Summer Cycling: Winnipeg insights from the trails
As summer wraps up, I’m feeling grateful for the investment of my city and those I’ve visited this season to make getting around on a bike a more pleasant and productive experience. While we still have some significant cycling infrastructure gaps to fill on this continent, we’ve come a long way. This blog’s video is…
Read MoreZoning Reform: Drilling down on key audiences
A couple of weeks ago we discussed the various audiences you must connect with when addressing zoning reform. As we noted, zoning reform is an extremely political, and often-fractious process because it affects the property values of landowners, the business plans of developers, and the legacy of the elected officials. There are two audiences that…
Read MoreGreat Civic Space: It ain’t the size, it’s what you do with it
While hanging out in the street last Friday, against my Mother’s better childhood advice, I felt an affirmation of my belief in why we, PlaceMakers, do what we do. A group of us neighborhood advocates, San Diego Urbanist, participated in the annual PARK(ing) Day event by creating a temporary civic space, a Parklet, in a…
Read MoreElevate Your Thinking: Light, air and connectivity beyond the street
As we increasingly urbanize, relearning the craft of creating human-scaled places, I often — too often — hear that “if we just get the ground floor right” then all will be fine. While obviously a good start, and one that addresses the most immediate of pedestrian interests, I find that this line of thinking ultimately…
Read MoreFake, or So Real it’s Blowing Your Mind?
Okay, so the headline here is a semi-inside joke. Last week, on vacation in Rosemary Beach on the Florida panhandle, I Facebooked a photo of the town’s Main Street, together with this comment: The idea that a traditionally-planned community is somehow “fake” reflects a particular American pathology: the belief that incompetence is akin to authenticity.…
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