Git ‘Er Done | Hazel Borys
This year’s CNU was all about doing again, unlike the past few years where we’ve focused on stop-gap measures to redirect our investment choices to more resilient patterns. Looks like they might be starting to pay off. Still, we have plenty of hard work ahead to remove both legal and financial hurdles.
June 10, 2013 | 12:01 am
CNU21: Insights and Highlights from Salt Lake City
May 27, 2013 | 12:01 am
Meet Your ‘Makers: Where we’ll be at CNU 21 Salt Lake City
It’s that time of year again, fellow urbanists. The Congress for the New Urbanism, perhaps the country’s most comprehensive gathering of city planners, city builders and city lovers. This year, the 21st, is themed Living Community which, according to organizers, “balances the demands of physical, social, economic, and environmental values by connecting people to place. It awakens a stewardship for our land and each other. It is measured by how well we care for the people around us, the places we make, and the land that hosts us.”
As always, you’ll find us there. And to keep it easy, we’ve compiled this handy compendium of everything we’re up to. Come find us, and let’s get into something.
May 9, 2013 | 12:01 am
Identifying the “Sabermetrics” of Urbanism
“For forty-one million, you built a playoff team. You lost Damon, Giambi, Isringhausen, Peña and you won more games without them than you did with them. You won the exact same number of games that the Yankees won, but the Yankees spent one point four million per win and you paid two hundred and sixty thousand. I know you’ve taken it in the teeth out there, but the first guy through the wall always gets bloody, always. It’s the threat to not just the way of doing business, but in their minds it’s threatening the game. But really what it’s threatening is their livelihoods, it’s threatening their jobs, it’s threatening the way that they do things. And every time that happens, whether it’s the government or a way of doing business or whatever it is, the people who are holding the reins, have their hands on the switch — they go bat shit crazy. I mean, anybody who’s not tearing their team down right now and rebuilding it using your model, they’re dinosaurs. They’ll be sitting on their ass on the sofa in October, watching the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.”
–From the movie Moneyball: John Henry, Boston Red Sox owner
March 15, 2012 | 12:01 am
(Public) Space: The final frontier
Having worked in communities big and small across the continent, we’ve had ample opportunity to test ideas and find approaches that work best. Urban design details. Outreach tactics. Implementation tricks. Many of these lessons are transferable, which is why we’ve created “Back of the Envelope,” a weekly feature where we jot ’em down for your consideration.
Today I offer a quick study relating cities of the US West to Leon Krier’s decidedly European Public Space Quantity Ratio.
