Public Spaces

As Mumbai recovers from the recent terrorist attacks, social worker Katia Savchuk reflects on how cities can be resilient to terrorism.

Relative to those in Chicago's Grant Park or New York's Time Square, post-election celebration turnouts in San Francisco public spaces were sparse. But it's not because of urban design--it's the city's character.

A contest sponsored by the Vancouver Public Space Network asks the public to find Vancouver's heart, a civic square that best defines the city. Sean Ruthen ponders the city's relationships to the each its primary squares now.

Robert Sibley comments on the worldwide problem of homeless people in public spaces, and reflects on how Canadians can and should manage them.

That's how landscape architect Edward L. Daugherty sees his job. “I think if there is a thread in my work, it’s to help people use the space that is available,” he says in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a retrospective of his work opens.

New York's Central Park was recently named to the APA's list of the country's 10 best public spaces. Sewell Chan wonders if the designation will really mean anything new for the park.

Bill Thompson of the ASLA reports on a public space in Silver Spring, Maryland that upends everything landscape architects and planners think they know about what makes a successful public space.

A new study shows that city planners aren't following the guidelines established in last year's Gender Equality Duty, which requires planners to consider the different ways that women use public space.

Civic amenities, public spaces, and even housing could one day be formed by living trees. Researchers are looking into this new idea.

Calling it a violation of public spaces, a new report from a civil liberties group in the UK has criticized the banning of public drinking in more than 600 places in England and Wales.

A Montreal business group sold sponsorship rights to Budweiser for an outdoor event on a closed street, but restauranteurs setting up outside think the deal goes too far as they are forced to sell the watery beer to their patrons.

The new Harley-Davidson Museum recently opened it's doors to the public, and the architecture firm Pentagram designed both the enormous exhibit space and the outdoor public spaces that connect the museum to the grid.

In the summer, a handful of New Yorkers like Calvin Tsao remake public space into their own personal dining rooms.

Stores in Vancouver suburbs have installed a device outside their stores called a 'Mosquito' that emits a high-pitched frequency that the average adult can't hear. The device is effective in decreasing vandalism, but at what cost to public space?

New York's DOT is proposing a new plan to transform Astor Place from feeling like a freeway median to a pedestrian-friendly public space.

A Dallas suburb considers whether to change its sign regulations to allow a massive cuckoo clock in a public space. European cities often have them, but American cities rarely do.

The annual transformation of riverbanks to beaches has begun in Paris, where the River Seine becomes a widely visited outdoor public space known as Paris Plages.

New York City's car-free "Summer Streets" events are proving to be popular. A three-and-a-half minute video offers a look at Saturday's Williamsburg Walks event on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

Washington D.C.'s National Mall is crumbling. Many say now's the time to start thinking about a new future for one of America's most prized public spaces.

This article from LA Weekly looks at L.A.'s parks deficit and what some are trying to do to address it.