December 15th, 2010 
admin 
In my previous post I talked about how in the future we will be needing to retrofit our malls and redevelop our suburbs into mixed use communities that are human scale rather than reliant on the car. One great example of this is the redevelopment of the Cottonwood Mall in Utah. This mall is known for being the first mall in Utah and now is being known as the first mall to be turned into a neighborhood.
Posted in Adaptive Reuse, New Urbanism, Redevelopment 
Tags: Cottenwood Mall, mall, mixed use, neighborhood, new urbanism, retrofitting, Utah, walkable 
10 Comments » December 10th, 2010 admin 
New Heden is a recent project that takes a vacant lot in Sweden and transforms it into a mixed-use, sustainable city. This project, by Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects, is in a way creating a city inside of a city. This underutilized site was once a paved parking lot and football fields but the redesign will have apartments, parks, and shops.
Posted in New Urbanism, Planning Tags: development, green, mixed use, New Heden, rooftop, sweden, walkable 1 Comment » December 6th, 2010 admin 
Over the years Karvik has lost its bond with the sea that it borders. The waterfront, which was once what the city relied on, is now nothing more than a city limit. Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects came up with a design that brings back life to this harbor and makes it the heart of the city. The design uses sightlines and walkways to create connection rather than just introducing bridges.
Posted in Redevelopment Tags: connectivity, harbor, karvik, kjellgren kaminsky, walkable No Comments » November 18th, 2010 admin 
According to a recent column in the LA times, the Los Angeles residents and city officials are happy with the way things are and the majority are not open to change. The author Christopher Hawthorne talks about how he sees a growing number of people opposed to a more pedestrian friendly Los Angeles.
Posted in Planning Tags: California, development, growth, LA, metropolis, planning, suburbs, walkable 2 Comments » November 12th, 2010 admin 
New Urbanism is an urban design idea that encourages building walkable communities. The idea is that to be sustainable we must start with our way of life. Introducing green techniques and green building methods do their part in helping the environment but the real way to be sustainable is to live sustainable. By building walkable communities it encourages people to not own cars, live closer to the city, own smaller homes, etc. The hopes of many new urbanism designs are that people live in work in the same area.
October 11th, 2010 admin 
Today is (Park)ing Day, a play on words and on cities themselves in which pedestrians take over the streets and redesign parking spaces as miniature public parks around the United States and even in other countries, but (naturally) on the West Coast in particular.
September 27th, 2010 admin We hear often how hard it is to live in North America without a car, yet in Manhattan 75% of households get along without one. Then we hear that in the suburbs its different- that is why in the USA nationwide, only 8% of households don’t own a car. But what if you designed a community around the principle that one doesn’t need a car? That really was green from the ground up? What would it look like? Vauban, near the German city of Freiburg, may be the best demonstration yet.
September 23rd, 2010 admin 
As public and private partners in Greater Tremé and Lower Mid-City work to restore the Claiborne corridor to economic and cultural vitality — and as the Claiborne Expressway and its deteriorating ramps face up to one hundred millions of dollars in reconstruction— a new study of traffic data and circulation patterns concludes that removal of the freeway would bring important benefits for surrounding neighborhoods and New Orleans as a whole.
Posted in Adaptive Reuse, New Urbanism Tags: freeway, green, new orleans, revitalization, walkable 2 Comments »
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