CNU 23 – PlaceMakers

PlaceMakers’ Intrepid Inside-Baseball Highlight Reel from CNU23

By PlaceMakers | May 5, 2015 |

Having just wrapped up what may have been our favorite CNU ever, in Dallas on April 29 through May 2, we want to share some of the ideas that resonated the most with us. The topics below are snippets of great insights from many voices, including the likes of Andrés Duany, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy…

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By PlaceMakers | April 20, 2015 |

Let’s take a wild stab at a generalization: Success at building a business or growing a non-profit or making a community more livable depends a lot on trust. You have to keep delivering what you promise to get people to keep buying what you’re selling.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. The DNA of urban succession

By PlaceMakers | April 13, 2015 |

Steve Jobs ended one of his most memorable speeches with the encouragement, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” He was quoting the message on the final page of the final publication of The Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand’s version of pre-Google, assembled with typewriters, polaroid’s and scissors. Jobs’ point for me was to realize that the hunger…

Urbanism: Nothing to Fear

By PlaceMakers | March 30, 2015 |

When the 9/11 attacks happened, all sorts of pundits started re-questioning whether cities should be decentralized, notably including Ed Glaeser. That questioning happened again after Hurricane Katrina and the continuing hurricanes along the Gulf Coast.

Suburban Retrofits: A deep dive

By PlaceMakers | March 9, 2015 |

A couple weeks ago, Ellen Dunham-Jones produced a Placemaking@Work webinar that she described as a deep dive into the suburban retrofit case studies, with an hour-long lecture in preparation for the 23rd Congress for the New Urbanism in Dallas, April 29 through May 2. This session is free until the beginning of the CNU here,…

The Human Scale

By PlaceMakers | February 16, 2015 |

This weekend, I again watched The Human Scale, a film from 2013, and got more stoked to meet Jan Gehl at the 23rd Congress for the New Urbanism (#CNU23) in Dallas in April. Jan will bring the Congress an update on his human scale work since the film was complete, but the ideas are timeless.…