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Urban Planning

Walking Is Increasingly Deadly, and Not Because People Are on Their Phones

A new book on the pedestrian-death crisis busts myths and offers solutions.

This Four-Year-Old, $150M Mall in San Francisco Has Never Seen a Customer

6x6 was supposed to be a flashy shopping destination. Instead, it’s a death knell for S.F. development.

Urbanism Hasn’t Worked for Everyone

"Who are we city-making for? These ‘experts’? Or is it the other human beings who call that place home?"

How St. Louis’ History of Private Streets Led to a Gun-Brandishing Couple

A Black Lives Matter march through a gated community highlighted the decisions that divide the city.

How to End Anti-Blackness in Cities

Black urbanists are mobilizing to eradicate racism in their field.

Why Google’s plan to build a ‘smart’ neighborhood failed

Sidewalk Labs has abandoned its proposal to remake Toronto’s waterfront.

Dead mall transformed into urban park, complete with wading pool

Inventive Dutch firm MVRDV offers a novel take on what to do with abandoned malls with this project in Taiwan.

You’re right, traffic is worse. Expanding highways and building more roads is to blame.

More roads, more money, more traffic: a new report argues America’s transit policy gridlock is costing us billions of dollars.

Fayetteville shows how a city can go green in a red state

The Arkansas city’s sustainability push is as much about lifestyle and livability as it is about long-term planning.

Public meetings are broken. Here’s how to fix them.

Neighborhood planning is governed by a biased, unrepresentative system.

Design competitions won’t solve your city’s problems

Contests to fix everyday urban issues create spectacles instead of solutions.

Will upzoning neighborhoods make homes more affordable?

Cities and states across the country are proposing new upzoning laws to combat the housing crisis. Will they work?

Can self-driving cars really make cities safer?

New federal policy announced by USDOT head Elaine Chao would make autonomous vehicle regulation largely voluntary.

Bjarke Ingels Architects and Toyota imagine a wild new smart city in Japan

The planned urban living experiment will be erected at the foothills of Mount Fuji.

Goodbye Syd Mead: A conversation with the artist who illustrated the urban future

In 2015, we spoke with the visionary designer behind the look of Blade Runner and other sci-fi classics who passed away this morning.

Virginia latest place to make single family zoning ban a political fight

A bill to allow duplexes statewide shows housing policy fights carry more weight as suburbs shift and housing crisis worsens.

8 issues that will define cities in the 2020s

Cars, climate change, and cameras are just some of the tough issues city leaders need to grapple with in the coming decade.

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The architect who’s confronting climate change

Pamela Conrad is out to restore nature to our cities—and help them face future ecological disasters.

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The urban designers who bring the community in

The Denver-based firm wants its projects to be useful to the public for decades.

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The urbanist with a plan for the LA River

To landscape designer Mia Lehrer, making LA more livable is all about peeling back the concrete.

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The architect making playgrounds reflect how children actually play

To Meghan Talarowski, play is "so much more than just physical activity."

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They’re putting the public back in public space

Meet five practitioners who want our shared spaces to be a resource for those who use them

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The architect who uses performance to open up public space

Through site-specific installations, Bryony Roberts addresses democracy, spatial justice, historic preservation, and identity.

Why California, and the nation, shouldn’t be afraid of density and upzoning

New research suggests even modest densification can add housing without changing neighborhood character.

Why LeBron James’s hometown philanthropy is powering forward on supportive housing

By expanding its mission, his foundation has embraced a holistic approach to urban challenges.

How a small Texas city rewrote the rules of development

Bastrop, Texas, found that updating the building code meant getting back on the grid.

New housing development in Arizona won’t allow residents to bring cars

Culdesac Tempe, a 1,000-person rental development that just broke ground, won’t allow personal cars to be driven or parked on site.

How four small cities are fighting the effects of urban renewal

Curated by MASS Design Group, Fringe Cities dissects the harmful legacy of urban renewal.

How a block party augurs the equitable future of Indianapolis

A cross between a street fair, tactical urbanism, and historical re-enactment, PreEnactIndy uses the past to see a better future.

What makes a place great? Urban planners explain with 13 examples across the U.S.

The 2019 Great Places in America program selected 13 streets, neighborhoods, and urban spaces for the honor.

The digital future of public space is taking shape in Miami’s new ‘smart park’

The Underline, a new linear park, will hire staff to help create digital tools to improve park engagement.

Crowd counting and cities: 5 things you need to know

Thousands are protesting today as part of the Global Climate Strike, but how do we count them? We break down the science of counting crowds in cities.

What Burning Man says about cities today

The lifecycle of Black Rock City is the accelerated lifecycle of cities who are becoming victims of their success.

Why inclusive cities start with safe streets

New design guidelines from the American Society of Landscape Architects show us how to build them.

New ‘universal design’ guide wants to make public spaces pleasant for all

The American Society of Landscape Architects’s guide lays out best practices for designing inclusive streets, parks, playgrounds, and more.

Fewer vacant homes in U.S., new report says

The housing boom has helped remove significant blight from its post-recession peak.

World’s largest rooftop urban farm to open in Paris next year

The farm will be home to more than 30 different species of plants that will grow vertically with aeroponic farming, a method that uses nutrient-filled mist to nourish the produce.

Landscape architecture is getting a major international prize

The new prize, which comes with a $100,000 award, hopes to raise awareness of the the importance of landscape architecture today.

Amsterdam considering a new bridge made from autonomous boats

Instead of a fixed bridge, "roboats" will ferry passengers from one side of a waterway to another.