Landscape Architecture
The Role of Public Space in Community Improvement
Creating beautiful public spaces is crucial to improving sense of community, according to urban designers looking to revitalize the Mississippi town of Tupelo.
Injecting Public Space into Palm Springs
Palm Springs -- once the epicenter of Spring Break -- is criticized by many for lacking public spaces. Now, a collection of architects, planners and urban designers have put out some ideas for improving the city.
Atlanta's Beltline Project Soldiers On -- But Without a Lot of Cash
After the Georgia Supreme Court ruled the Beltline project could not use school funds from a tax-increment financing funding source, what next?
The Cleaning Power of Landscape Architecture
This post from Pruned looks at a proposal to turn a contaminated reservoir into a "bioremediating ecological machine".
Tree Maps Inform City Planting Plans
A group of researchers is using mapping and satellite data to help cities quantify their tree canopy cover -- a move that is spurring efforts to increase tree planting in cities across the country.
Deadly Environments?
Mark Ames, author of "Going Postal", wonders if American gun tragedies like last week's massacre at Northern Illinois University might be at least partially explained by the bleak physical built environments of middle America.
Statues and Limitations
Public art in the United Kingdom is coming under increasing scrutiny as artists and the public grapple with the question of who should be memorialized in statue form: significant historical figures or ordinary people?
New Delta Could Protect Coast From Hurricane Damage
Scientists are proposing a plan to buffer the Gulf Coast from the brunt of hurricanes by engineering more than 1000 square kilometers of new wetlands along the coast.
Attack of the Public Art 'Monsters'
Prominent museum heads in the United Kingdom are calling for greater discretion in the commissioning of public art pieces. They say the latest batch of sculptures are "monsters".
A Green Lens for Affordable Housing
This article looks at how landscape architects have combined green roofs, public spaces and affordable housing to address the chronic homelessness in San Francisco's infamous Tenderloin district.
This Park Attraction Brought To You By...
New York City parks officials have announced plans to generate extra revenue by selling off naming rights for some of the city's public park attractions.
Lawn Greens
If 'peak oil' makes oil-intensive industrial agriculture economically unfeasible, will suburbanites need to turn their lawns into farming plots?
A Test for Walkability
The city of Pasadena, California has enlisted a groups of more than 100 volunteers to walks and evaluate its streets to rate the city's walkability.
Texas Town Forced To Forfeit Land For Border Wall
More than 200 acres of public land in Texas were transferred to the Department of Homeland security on the order of a federal judge. The department sought the land as part of its plan to build hundreds of miles of fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reserach Shows Misconceptions About Trees and Street Safety
Engineers have cited safety concerns in advising against tree planting along streets, but recent research shows that the rare tree-lined street may be less dangerous than the much more common street lined with parked cars.
Using New York's Bike Boxes
This video from Streetfilms looks at the bike boxes painted on New York's streets and explain how to use them.
Is Montreal Still a 'City of Design'?
Montreal may have been a "city of design" when it hosted 1967's World Fair and UNESCo says it still is. But one prominent Canadian architect is skeptical.
Beltline Needs A Guiding Vision
Plans are moving forward for Atlanta's broad Beltline project, including parkspace, mixed use development and transit. But this piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution argues that a grand vision is needed to harness the momentum.
Urban Parks Rebound
High-profile urban parks in Denver and Irvine, California, hint at a resurgence in the creation of outdoor spaces in America's urban areas.
L.A.'s Public Squares Leave Much To Be Desired
This piece from the Los Angeles Times Magazine looks at the recent trend of including public squares in high-profile L.A. projects, and examines why they don't really work in the traditional sense.
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.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service