Landscape Architecture

Walkability Needs Nature
The healthiest neighborhoods are both walkable and green, according to a growing body of evidence.

Community-Driven Designs Proposed for Detroit's West Riverfront Park
Following a plan to line the city's waterfront with redeveloped parkland, Detroit's 22-acre West Riverfront Park will incorporate concepts from a community-led design process.
How to Fight 'Coastal Squeeze' By Engineering Nature
A Rutgers professor restores natural processes to help shorelines adapt to rising sea levels.

City as Border Zone
Architects Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller, founders of El Paso firm AGENCY, discuss the reality and rhetoric of the US–Mexico border.

Chamblee, Georgia Receives Funding to Fuel its Walkability Ambitions
A small grant with big meaning for the city of Chamblee.

Op-Ed: To Meet BeltLine's Affordable Housing Goals, Cut the Streetcar Plans
According to one argument, the importance of developing affordable housing is a higher priority for the Atlanta BeltLine than a streetcar. It's a question of scarce funding, and how to spend it to the greatest public benefit.

Working to Avoid the Pitfalls of the High Line
A highly anticipated linear park project in Philadelphia will open this year. Planners and activists have been working in anticipation of increased pressure on the local housing market.

Report Details the Long-Term Financial Benefits of Green Design
This report estimates that U.S. cities could save half a trillion dollars by investing in "smart surface technologies." The study takes into account obvious factors like energy use and less intuitive ones like tourism revenues.

Fountain of the Fairs in Queens Ready for a Family-Friendly Makeover
The Fountain fo the Fairs was deigned by Robert Moses for the 1964-1965 World's Fair but it's now in need of a makeover.

Bay Area Design Challenge Takes On Sea Level Rise
For the next several months, nine sites will be the focus of efforts to design for resilience as sea levels rise. Proposals involve "threading nature back into an urbanized terrain."

Addressing Online Retail's Ceaseless Curbside Deliveries
The rise of online retail has come with a flurry of delivery trucks that don't always have good places to stop. Researchers from Amazon's hometown are on the case.

Former Bay Bridge Piers Offer a New Approach to the Water
"Four piers from the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge will live on as a public boardwalk and vista point in Oakland and on Yerba Buena Island," reports Erin Baldassari.

Reexamining Notions of Placemaking
Surveying the public discussion for answers about how to make sense of placemaking.

San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower Opens, Underwhelms
Of the city’s newest, tallest building John King writes, “[it’s] as if the creators were so busy being tasteful they forgot that big buildings can be fun."

Santa Monica to Plan for a Freeway Cap Where the I-10 Meets the Pacific Coast
The terminus of the I-10 freeway is a 7,000-foot concrete trench across the heart of Santa Monica. The city's new downtown plan calls for a cap, and a new master plan will hammer out specifics.

Are Teens Tired of Commuting?
Carole Turley Voulgaris guest blogs about a recent article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

Ohio River Greenway Coming Soon—Even Bigger Plans to Follow
A new bike and walking path connecting two cities on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, across from Louisville, could provide a runway for much larger open space ambitions.

The Most Popular Posts of 2017
All the planning news that's fit to print.

Making the 'Case for Healthy Places'
The Project for Public Spaces recently released a new report titled "The Case for Healthy Places: Improving Health through Placemaking."

Gateway Arch Finally Connects to Downtown St. Louis
A $380 million project bridges a freeway and connects the Gateway Arch to downtown St. Louis.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
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Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
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NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland