Category: Placemaking
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American Cities’ Biggest Transportation Innovation is Decidedly Low-Tech
American cities are adding bus and bike lanes, implementing bikeshare systems, and creating public plazas and miniature parks at a rapid pace. Urban streets, long the domain of automobiles, are increasingly being reclaimed by and for the people, a change that amounts to the biggest transportation innovation in recent years, according to a new report…
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Roanoke, Virginia Placemaking Shows a City on the Rise
Big cities aren’t the only places working hard to create terrific communities. I was reminded of this fact when visiting Roanoke, Virginia over the past few days to attend CityWorks(X)po, a conference for change agents and placemakers. Going in, I was completely unfamiliar with the city, but was delighted with what I discovered there during my short visit. It…
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The Case for Activity Centers in the D.C. Region
Atlanta has Livable Centers. San Francisco has Priority Development Areas. And here in D.C., we have Activity Centers. Different terms, similar concepts: places or hubs in large metropolitan areas where future growth is designated, encouraged, and concentrated. Activity Centers have big implications regarding efficiencies in transportation, sustainability, and livability, particularly in a post-recession environment of…
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London Shows that Every City Could Use an Olympics
The Summer Olympics serve as a chance for host cities to showcase their architectural prowess. Who can forget the fabulous flyover views in 2008 of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium? But now nearly five years later, the Bird’s Nest remains largely vacant, and its future unclear. Even one of its creators, Chinese dissident artist Ai Waiwei, has…
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Jeff Speck Illuminates Many Dividends of a Walkable City
Urban planners have long proselytized about the preferability of urban forms of development over suburban sprawl. But it wasn’t until fairly recently that the market caught up with their sermonizing. Urban planner Jeff Speck, who will be speaking at a Mobility Lab event on April 18, has written a new book called Walkable City: How Downtown Can…
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The Silver Line Playbook: Clarendon and Tysons
The differences between Clarendon and Tysons Corner – two communities in Northern Virginia – are readily apparent to even a casual observer. Clarendon has walkability, cohesion, and sense of place and Tysons has sprawl, confusion, and traffic gridlock. Although these two places will soon be linked when Metro’s Silver Line opens west of Washington D.C.,…
Paul Goddin 