History / Preservation

Take 260 trucks off the road for every train, avoid costs for maintaining highways maintenance cost, and create multiple other environmental and economic development advantages—states are reinvesting in their rail lines.

March 3, 2014 - Governing

Detroit recently replaced New Orleans as the American city with the highest rate of blight. As Detroit undertakes its plans to shrink, which includes a massive blight removal campaign, what lessons from New Orleans bear repeating?

February 27, 2014 - New York Times

With the provocative title “A Dictator’s Guide to Urban Design,” a recent article in The Atlantic examines the revolutionary capacity of public squares like Ukraine’s Independence Square.

February 25, 2014 - The Atlantic

With residential property prices ten times the average salary in Melbourne and Sydney, U.S. forecaster Harry Dent expects the Australian market to mirror the collapse witnessed in the California.

February 18, 2014 - The Age (Australia)

Google buses, Google ferries, and now, a Google hangar.

February 13, 2014 - San Jose Mercury News

This is not our first story on preserving a huge donut sign. What makes this one special is that it's as much about Long Beach as it is about preservation. And what makes it ironic is whom they had to fight to keep the donut from being torn down!

February 12, 2014 - The Atlantic Cities

A new study shows evidence of dramatic positive impacts for the New Mexico MainStreet program, a state program working in coordination with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

February 10, 2014 - KRWG

The permanent art collection of the Atlanta BeltLine just added a relic from the city’s past—a thirteen-ton sculpture crafted out of old train tracks—but it's not the only example of repurposed detritus from the city's history of demolition.

February 7, 2014 - Atlanta Magazine

Plans to build “movie theaters, restaurants and a 34-story hotel” overlap with the archaeological site of a 2,000-year-old Tequesta village.

February 6, 2014 - Bradenton Herald

Nomenclature changes, especially for cities with chronologies spanning centuries and even millennia. Test your knowledge of historic, even ancient, place names.

February 1, 2014 - Guardian Cities

In the eighth installment of the Urban Juxtapositions series profiled in Planetizen on January 16, Chuck Wolfe asks if we are using the right language when it comes to densifying urban spaces.

February 1, 2014 - myurbanist

It's hard to keep up with the endless quest to present the world's knowledge in map form, but luckily we've got Max Fisher as a guide. He's collected 40 more fascinating maps that explain world history, present conditions and future scenarios.

January 31, 2014 - The Washington Post

These 15 ancient cities can help modern urbanites plan more efficient and sustainable municipalities.

January 30, 2014 - Future Cities

Completed in 1880 as a company town by railcar tycoon George Pullman, the 300-acre Pullman Historic District in Chicago could be a beautiful addition to the National Park System.

January 24, 2014 - The Architect's Newspaper

Developers are seeking allowances to gut the historic Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia to build an eight-screen movie complex.

January 23, 2014 - PlanPhilly

Outcry over the potential sale of post offices in Berkeley and the Bronx has prompted those areas’ respective Congressional representatives to seek federal legislation to put the brakes on the Postal Service’s rush to sell historic properties.

January 23, 2014 - Washington Post

In an ongoing series, Urbanism Without Effort author Chuck Wolfe argues the importance of the overlaps, overlays and convergence points that define city life, and emphasizes the importance of reading and interpreting their everyday expression.

January 16, 2014 - myurbanist

From Denver to Syracuse, U.S. cities are looking to heal neighborhoods torn apart by the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Could an alternative way of envisioning and financing such a system provide lessons for the developing world?

January 15, 2014 - The Atlantic Cities

Preserving urban landscapes can be just as important as preserving historic buildings. However, saving our design heritage needs to be balanced with the imperative that places effectively meet the functional needs of contemporary cities.

January 13, 2014 - Mark Hough

Over the last several decades, researchers have examined how our cities deplete natural resources and change the climate and ecosystems of their surrounding areas. But new evidence shows that such impacts aren't a purely modern phenomenon.

January 9, 2014 - Smithsonian