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Finding the Best Ways to Portray City Life

November 21, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 267 views
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Media attention to urban life continues, day by day, but to my mind, characteristic rankings, photographs and metrics often need greater historical context, and more robust, real-life punctuation.While Tahrir Square and the Occupy Movement parlay the daily urban tensions of democracy and authority, cities remain focal points of... [read more]

Historic Preservation Aligns With Green Renovation

November 18, 2011 by Carl Seville
with 203 views
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At a recent round-table meeting on sustainable historic preservation, I was struck by how much alignment there is between preservation and green renovation. Now, green renovation is a wide and diverse field, and some of the deep energy retrofit people probably don’t have the same opinion on sustainable preservation standards as I do, but disagreements just help to keep things interesting and further the conversation. [read more]

Contemplating ‘The Genius of a Place’

November 10, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 377 views
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The genius of the old ways, near Cortona in the 1950's If universal questions about the dynamics of place need a stage to be answered, there is no better theater than Cortona, Italy, home to Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun, and a symbol of the romantic ambience of a simpler life. There, American expatriate and film producer Sarah... [read more]

Remembering Urban Growth, From Idea to Implementation

October 17, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 238 views
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For many of today’s advocates of creative cities, success cannot be achieved soon enough. Common aspirations of sprawl avoidance, compact development, dynamic public spaces, ecosystem integration and multimodal transit are increasingly touted in both the public and private sectors. [read more]

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How City Gates Define Urban Space

October 11, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 428 views
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The city gate of old: form follows functionIn a time of urbanization, "arrival cities" and metropolitan regions with multiple urban centers, should a city provide an entry differentiating itself from its barrios, suburbs and exurbs?If so, what form should this entry take, or should it have any form at all?The signature, historic, feature... [read more]

Recollecting the 'Discovery of the Street'

September 21, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 347 views
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"Jackson tells us what is organic, wondrous and ethereal about life in cities, through a bittersweet history of public space, from medieval markets to the modern freeway." [read more]

Using Twitter to Encourage Engagement in Urban History

September 1, 2011 by This Big City
with 284 views
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You’ve all seen them, the plaques with years on them displayed around your city. They commemorate people, places or events that are import to the history of the city. Maybe you even stop to read them. Most likely you take them for granted and walk right by. How do we get people to really engage with these signposts of the city’s history... [read more]

Rediscovering the Road to the Sustainable City

August 15, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 451 views
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Urban integration with geography Those of us who write about cities should be students of history and experience, and with some humility listen to scholars and the legacy of urban development from around the world. In that sense, a recent summary of sustainable city characteristics by Harvard Professor Joan Busquets provides... [read more]

Eddie Jones on Design in Ruin

July 26, 2011 by Tazmine Loomans
with 140 views
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Today’s post is by one of my favorite architects Eddie Jones. I heard Eddie speak at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference a few weeks ago about a new direction he’s taking with design. Find out why Eddie is tired of shiny new buildings and is more intrigued with the effects of time on the built environment: I’m not sure when... [read more]

Santa Fe Railyard Redevelopment Creates Rich Urban Experience

July 11, 2011 by Next American City
with 287 views
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Credit: © Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation, Frederic Schwartz ArchitectsEditor’s note:  This is the second in a series of interviews by Mary Jones with the 2011 winners of the Rudy Bruner Award.  The Santa Fe Railyard Redevelopment was one of four Silver Medalists.  For more information on the Rudy Bruner Award... [read more]

The Continued Relevance of Reclaiming the Urban Memory

June 27, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 927 views
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Melbourne, Flinders Street Station, 2009, evolved as modern transit hub ©2009 myurbanist

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) preface Recently, many have inquired about the inspiration for my exploratory and photo-intensive myurbanist and Huffington Post entries from Tanzania, as well as visual documentation of city corners... [read more]

Remembering Shelter, not Standards

April 4, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 76 views
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Inherited forms of shelter are to residential zoning what oral histories are to Gutenberg—the backdrop of rich tradition for codification and institutional creation. If safety and well-being are maintained, such institutionalization may be laudable for preserving practices or legends otherwise lost with time. However, if the result is... [read more]