As working from home grows in popularity, where does that leave downtowns that have prioritized their land for office space—and what does this all say about how we should think about neighborhood design?
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Ray Gindroz, FAIA, led countless projects on transforming public housing into mixed-income neighborhoods. In this interview, he talks about his half-century-long career and insights into the future of housing.
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Design affects us in a multitude of ways, and when we look to nature as inspiration for designing the built environment, the core takeaways are: adaptation and incrementalism.
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The idea of a permanent community “character” was an invention of the suburban era, and it's showing its cracks now—because it was never an attainable or desirable goal.
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Some neighborhoods can feel downright hostile, especially to outsiders. But many places have become this way due to inhospitable design, not inhospitable people.
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“No neighborhood should be exempt from change. No neighborhood should be subjected to radical change.” Let’s examine what this core Strong Towns principle actually means.
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Our drive continues through the area once called “the ugliest place in Maryland.” When you look around, though, you can find the building blocks for an urban transformation in these suburbs.
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Let’s take a drive down Rockville Pike, a major thoroughfare near DC. What kinds of development patterns will we find as we pass through each ring of suburbia?
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There are eight qualities of a remarkable “everyday neighborhood.” How many does your neighborhood have?
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People might think of city life as necessarily “hard.” But the creative director at a Copenhagen-based urban design firm begs to differ. There are a few simple principles that can “soften” our city, drawing us closer together and radically improving our quality of life.
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Greta McLain—Artistic Director at GoodSpace Murals, a Minneapolis-based organization that promotes community development through public art—shares how you can use public art to build community in your own city or town, including how to create a tribe of public art advocates in your community, and how to turn stakeholders leery of public art into advocates.
Ed Morrison—author of Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership—shares how city leaders can grow their economies by fostering collaboration on a local level, including how to find existing assets in your community, how to encourage existing organizations to focus on a shared goal, and how to incrementally pursue that goal.
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Paul Fast—Principal Architect at HCMA, a Canadian architecture and design firm—discusses its More Awesome Now project and how you can revive neglected alleyways in your own neighborhood, including how to assess the needs of the neighborhood, how to measure the success of the project, and how to consider all members of the community in its design.
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Instead of subsidizing or regulating our way to the finished state we think we want in our neighborhoods, there s a much more powerful—and achievable—path we can take.
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When we take the steps that make our communities more financially resilient, we often make them healthier too. Just ask Dan Burden of Blue Zones: an organization that works with cities and towns across the country to help people lead healthier lives.
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All over North America, poor neighborhoods often punch above their weight when it comes to contributing real value and resilience to their cities—in both financial productivity and other, less quantifiable strengths.
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These 5 steps will help you test the development potential in your town.
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When we talk about parks in cities, it helps if we can classify them into two types. Grand Parks are destinations. Neighborhood Parks are the living room of the community.
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In spite of the fact that ⅓ of all American are renting their housing, there seems to be a notion in many neighborhoods and towns that owners are the only residents who are going to be valuable members of their communities. Instead, renters should be more fully welcomed into their neighborhoods and respected as the diverse, engaged community members that they can be.
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A little update on the storm that passed over Chuck's home last weekend. Thanks to everyone who checked in and sent well wishes.
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