Regional Distributions

Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Photo of suburban houses[Originally posted to Where] Much has been made of suburban change in light of the subprime mortgage crisis. Articles such as What Will Save the Suburbs? and The Next Slum? offer new ways of looking at suburbs, with important implications for cities. A post at Design Observer by Andrew Blauvelt (co-curator of the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes exhibition currently on view at the Yale School of Architecture) offers an interesting perspective on these issues.

Blauvelt finds that suburbs are taking on qualities commonly associated with cities, and vice versa. For example, suburbs see increasing diversity, congestion, and poverty as cities experience gentrification, detached housing, and chain stores. Blauvelt considers cities and suburbs mutually dependent, both from physical and psychological perspectives. He explains that “[c]ity dwellers and suburbanites need each other to reinforce their own sense of place and identity despite ample evidence that what we once thought were different places and lifestyles are increasingly intertwined and much less distinct.” (more…)

Revisiting the Radiant City

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

[Originally posted to Where]  A note accompanies this photo in Le Corbusier’s The Radiant City (1933):

“outside our apartments in the Radiant City: we come home from work and change; our friends are there waiting. High spirits, physical activity. And then we can go on to think about the ’serious’ things afterwards.”

I can see myself now, coming home after a long day’s work and running the steeplechase with my neighbors. :) Le Corbusier’s plans, while at times charmingly unrealistic, are also blamed for inspiring the spread of giant housing projects in cities around the world. But is there enduring value in his thinking?

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Walk Score

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Walk Score provides “walkability” ratings for your address based on proximity to useful places such as libraries, grocery stores, and restaurants. The information is drawn from Google Maps.

Quoted: Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks…

Urbanization and Innovation, Stewart Brand

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

Photo of Stewart Brand giving a lecture on urbanization and innovationStewart Brand, co-founder of Global Business Network and author of How Buildings Learn, gave a fascinating talk on urbanization and innovation at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club on June 14, 2007. The video of Brand’s presentation, titled How Urbanization Will Drive Innovation on is available on FORA.tv.

Photo credit: Mike Lee