World

A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute finds that the global consuming class will grow by 1 billion people by 2025, and undergo a profound geographic shift. Cities and businesses should prepare for this shift with targeted investments.

July 11, 2012 - McKinsey & Company

Pedestrian malls have had a very mixed success ever since Victor Gruen debuted them back in the 1960s. Scott Doyon says the problem is that going pedestrian-only is the flipside of being autocentric.

July 9, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Unsurprisingly, most of the projects compiled by the company KPMG called "Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition" are in expanding countries like China and Saudi Arabia. Tyler Falk pulls out some favorites.

July 7, 2012 - SmartPlanet

What exactly is defined by mixed-use is often somewhat up to debate. Howard Blackson of Better Cities & Towns helps us clarify what the term "mixed-use" should really mean.

July 6, 2012 - Better Cities & Towns

A common criticism of streetcars are their relative slow speed combined with high capital and operating costs. Still, streetcars are being constructed in both large in small cities to help incentivize development.

July 6, 2012 - The Naked City

Nate Berg says that planners have a crucial role in making sure cities are prepared for natural disasters.

July 5, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

A device invented to cool factories changed where and how our cities formed.

July 2, 2012 - The Atlantic

As the global recession continues to hit the global economy, shopping centers take on two distinct development patterns in developed and developing nations.

June 28, 2012 - Retail Traffic

As new research data on cities pours in daily, interesting patterns emerge regarding income, green space and urban growth. Like people in their genetic make-up, are cities fundamentally all the same?

June 28, 2012 - The Economist

Back in 2001, Jim Starry proposed a radical rethink of airport design, with inclined runways and gates on top of terminals and parking lots. Lost in the 9/11 shuffle, Sarah Rich takes a second look at the idea.

June 27, 2012 - Smithsonian

Tyler Falk reports on new data released by Facebook, mapping the top 5 "social landmarks" in 25 cities from Seoul to São Paulo.

June 25, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Julie V. Iovine laments that while walkability is the watchword of the day, architects have to design what they're hired to design -- and that often means designing iconic buildings that turn a blind eye to pedestrians.

June 24, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

Google Transit has changed the way people plan their public transportation trips. Now there's an app, OnTheBus, for people with visual, hearing, physical and cognitive impairments. Zak Stone describes the tool.

June 23, 2012 - Good

Just as Mayor Bloomberg had opened a striking new front in America's war on obesity with his ban on oversized soft drinks, a revolutionary "crisp-crusted, ooey-gooey" weapon of mass seduction has been unveiled, writes Rene Lynch.

June 22, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

Andrew C. Revkin delivers the good news out of Rio, where global leaders are gathered to argue incessantly over how not to address climate change. At a side event, $175 billion in loans have been pledged for sustainable transportation.

June 21, 2012 - The New York Times

Announced this week by All Things Considered hosts Melissa Block and Robert Siegel, National Public Radio is launching a new series called the NPR Cities Project and they're asking listeners for their input.

June 21, 2012 - NPR

Recent recipient of the ASLA's Gold Medal, landscape architect Laurie Olin shares some interesting opinions on his distinguished career, landscape urbanism, and the state of public space.

June 21, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

What should planners take away from last week's barrage of polls about Americans' attitudes?

June 19, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Zócalo Public Square has gathered together four accomplished planning and development professionals to give their opinions on which scholar or intellectual of the last 50 years has had the greatest impact on the cities we live in today.

June 19, 2012 - Zocalo Public Square

As world leaders gather in Rio this week to negotiate progress toward sustainable development, Thomas Lovejoy looks at the failures to comprehensively address global sustainability to date, and suggests some achievable goals for conference attendees.

June 19, 2012 - The New York Times