Everybody hates being stuck in congestion. For decades the default solution has been: Make the roads wider. Cities across the country have been happy to comply. But they’re wrong. We look at why and what’s the real solution to congestion.
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A dismal landscape of sprawl blankets west Texas. But just when it seemed that the craft of making lovable places has been lost, a resident in the small Texan town of Post has revived good urban design. We discuss his project: Silent Night Village.
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The new book The Well-Tempered City explores solutions to a plethora of cities’ 21st century challenges. But one solution stands out: How citizens are included in the discussions about change. What can make a person yearn for parking lots one minute and walkable, sustainable cities the next? We discuss.
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Two-way streets are returning to American downtowns. We find out why.
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What constitutes beauty? The Most Beautiful Villages in France organization says it has the answer. We look at the scheme’s criteria of beauty and ask: Could there be a Most Beautiful Villages of America award?
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From the ticky tacky homes of Daly City to the Penny Lane bus terminus, for decades songs have been written about the built environment and its connection to happiness. Here are 5 of the best. Can you think of any others?
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To be safe, children need playgrounds. Or do they? We visit the Koret Children’s Quarter in San Francisco and the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado, and ask: Are children better fenced off from, or included in, society?
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Every inch of the old center – streets, squares, and courtyards – of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina feels like “somewhere”. But many places we’ve built feel like “nowhere”. What’s the difference between somewhere and nowhere? We discuss.
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Welcome to the Let’s Explore series where we walk around a place and analyze it from an urban design perspective. In this installment, we visit the town of St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey, located in the English Channel between England and France.
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9 de Julio Avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is perhaps the widest avenue in the world. Like almost all wide streets it’s not a place you’d ever want to hang around. What can be done to make such wide roads places worth caring about? Vienna, Austria, has one incredible solution.
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Italy’s many stunning towns awaken the child within us, showing the connection between beautiful well-built places and happiness. Here are 5 special moments from my own adventures in Italy that demonstrate this connection.
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In a previous post, we discussed the 10-Minute Neighborhood concept, which proposes that people should be able to reach any daily destination within a 10-minute walk from home. Now, we explore how to do a 10-Minute Neighborhood review to see how walkable your neighborhood is.
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