Hoping to shake city folks out of our everyday stupor, Charles Wolfe has written a book on observing the city.
Charles Wolfe's new book, Seeing the City, offers a method and rationale for observing cities. "This isn’t an exhaustive cataloging of one specific and isolated feature (no matter how much you love exuberantly decorated manhole covers). Instead, the urban diarist looks for patterns that emerge when people interact with space." writes Jessica Leigh Hester for CityLab.
Wolfe's book encourages city dwellers to break out of their routines and really see what's happening in the city, what pop up stores work, which streets attract the most walkers, and what improvements really enhance the city.
FULL STORY: How to Observe Your City
Book Review: Combining Sustainability and Smart Growth
A review of The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, by architects Nico Larco and Kaarin Knudson.
YIMBY Right And Left: A Review of Two Books
A review of two books about the American housing crisis — one tailored to liberal readers, another tailored to conservative readers.
North Texas Town Launches Downtown Revitalization Plan
The Design Downtown Denton plan takes aim at improving walkability and highlighting the city’s historic assets.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.
Healing Through Parks: Altadena’s Path to Recovery After the Eaton Fire
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena is uniting to restore Loma Alta Park, creating a renewed space for recreation, community gathering, and resilience.
San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule
The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.
Electric Vehicles for All? Study Finds Disparities in Access and Incentives
A new UCLA study finds that while California has made progress in electric vehicle adoption, disadvantaged communities remain underserved in EV incentives, ownership, and charging access, requiring targeted policy changes to advance equity.
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.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research