planning

The way to a stronger city is through its stomach By Diana Budds Cities rely on a familiar toolkit to become stronger, healthier, and more livable: expand transportation, create public space, add jobs, construct housing. While these strategies have been proven to work, they also...

Can walls and barriers alone solve a problem as multifaceted as gun violence and mass shootings? By Patrick Sisson In the wake of the Parkland shooting and the March for Our Lives movement, the question of school safety has gotten renewed focus. The president’s calls to “harden...

While the primary reason for America’s mass shootings is insufficient gun control, Aaron Betsky also lays some blame at the triumph of the virtual over the real, and tasks architects with helping to change that. By Aaron Betsky Are we safe anywhere? The latest school shooting in...

By Aaron Betsky As I tried to understand what my husband was saying in a crowded restaurant last week, failing to distinguish his intelligence and wit over the boom of the post-disco music from the sound system and the din of the ebullient patrons, it occurred to me how much...

The president hopes to spur $1.5 trillion in private-public partnership investments with $200 billion in federal grants over the next 10 years. By Katharine Keane Today, President Donald Trump unveiled his much-awaited proposal to fix the nation’s crumbling highways,...

The draft plan would make it much harder for older projects to win funding, and heavily favors user fees, tolls, and private investment to spur growth. By Jonathan Hilburg Axios has obtained a leaked draft copy of the Trump administration’s much-vaunted infrastructure plan. An...

Your city is watching you By Patrick Sisson and Illustrations by Sunny Eckerle n 1969, William H. “Holly” Whyte decided to analyze, and eventually decode, New York City’s rambunctious street life. A famed author, Whyte, along with a handful of collaborators, was recruited by the...

This year’s AIA Honor Awards illustrate how sophisticated public works design has become. By aileen kwun The annual AIA Honor Awards–the highest honor bestowed by the American Institute of Architects to a completed built project–serve as a sort of industry-wide pulse check, and a...

Researchers are developing new technologies for self-healing asphalt, pothole prediction, and more. By Blaine Brownell ‘Tis the season of the pothole—and a myriad of other problems to do with road infrastructure. Winter brings out the worst in pavement: once water penetrates...

by Ali Morris Studies of how the brain works show that offices can only facilitate creative thinking if they offer spaces for both focused work and restorative activities, says furniture brand Haworth. According to Haworth’s research, two very different types of workplace...