About Social Media Today
Posts by Chuck Wolfe Subscribe 
Exploring the Premise of Urbanism Without Effort
As urban stakeholders--residents, pundits, developers, associated professionals, and politicians--we like to discuss and debate aspects of urbanism and how cities should change to meet new challenges. But when we talk about urbanism, I think we...
Reclaiming the Urban Memory
prefaceOne inspiration for my new book, Urbanism Without Effort, came in 2010, from an unexpected find in a Seattle used bookstore. This discovery led to interviews and exposure to incomparable photographs, some over a century old.“...
Movement and Settlement, Upside Down
Last week, I participated in the Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking Leadership Council inaugural meeting in Detroit. The event left several impressions, among them a real concern about accuracy in recounting what I saw.In 2009, I tried to add my...
Lessons from the Landscape of Iceland
I believe in the value of visiting contrasting places--divorced from the familiar—in order to read landscapes of shelter, wheels, weather, landforms and light. From these observations, our urban dialogues gain their basis, and to my mind, their...
What the Urban Coyote Says About Nature and the City
Successful integration of nature and the city is a hallmark of sustainability. Sometimes it occurs without effort or provocation, while other times it results from projects or plans. In both instances, the natural and artificial merge, morph and...
Using Pictures to Think About Cities
The actor and director Orson Welles once said:“I dont believe in learning from other people's pictures. I think you should learn from your own interior vision of things and discover, as I say, Innocently, as though there had never been anybody.”I...
10 Urban Qualities Every City Should Have
In recent months, architect friends have explained how several post-Recesssion projects focus sustainability goals on the end-user experience, rather than simply pursue flagship "green" designations. It seems there is a commendable and renewed...
Third Places in Cities - Seeing Who and Where in the City
Nothing has become more symbolic of city resurgence than hybrid “third place” venues, where in neighborhood settings, social and work lives merge by both night and day.For me, this assertion is most interesting with illustrated detail. Photographs,...
Learning From Five Principles of People and Place
In my own writing, I enjoy finding layered, historical illustrations of how people relate to the built and sociocultural communities around them. I have explained before how this exercise is not merely academic, but is also useful as a...
Searching for Good Urbanism, as Gatsby Intended
Gatsby’s green light, urbanism-style?In order to reckon with today’s urbanism, I suggest challenging your dreams and, like The Great Gatsby, the American Dream itself.Recently, I went into a restaurant in a trendy urban neighborhood, excited by the...
Cities At Night: When People and Place Meet
I have written about cities at night many times before, most recently in the context of innate relationships between people and urban settings in my upcoming book, Urbanism Without Effort, (Island Press, 2013). I find especially captivating the...
Learning From "The Crossing" and "The Urban Bench"
I’ve often written that there is no substitute for imagery that humanizes urban trends and brings to life popular city pastimes.The two black and white photographs below are no exception, and, by design, need little interpretation. One is passive,...
