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A suburban town revitalizes incrementally
Parsons Alley activates abandoned properties, creates a popular and lively new public place, and attracts businesses that appeal to young professionals. “As downtowns and urban neighborhoods thrive...
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Sprawl Repair – The next frontier in residential innovation
From the Sprawl Repair Manual: Left: Conventional single-use residential development. Right: The proposed sprawl repair provides maximum flexibility, a mix of uses, and a full range of human...
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The Case for Putting Amazon’s HQ2 in the Suburbs
The land-use plan for the new Tysons (Fairfax County) Amazon could turn a vast swath of suburbia into a walkable, transit-connected, mixed-use, and architecturally interesting satellite city. Such a...
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Suburban Remix: A New Generation of Walkable Development
Kaid Benfield reviews a new book on Bethesda Row in Maryland, where office space, retail, and multifamily housing in an architecturally varied and human-scaled setting has considerable appeal as a...
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Troubled Malls Finding New Owners And New Life
Independence Center in Independence, MO, is a classic 1970s-era property. More developers are finding new opportunities in underutilized malls and empty storefronts with mall retrofits. “Tearing down...
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Bike to the Future: Portland uses bikes to rethink 70 years of strip malls
Halsey’s sidewalk-facing business strip on a winter morning. The parking lot at Gateway’s shopping center, just off Halsey, is zoned for skyscrapers. At the cutting edge of sprawl retrofit, Portland is...
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Suburban Remix: The Next Generation of Urban Places
New normal: As people 65 or older and 34 or younger come to dominate U.S. population growth—a pattern that will continue through the 2030s—demand for single-family houses in suburbs will fall as demand...
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Plan to retrofit suburban to mixed-use urban
The square at the heart of a proposed Southside town center, with Abercorn Street re-imagined as a multiway boulevard at the lower right. Source: CNU Legacy Project team led by David M. Schwarz...
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High prices in America’s cities are reviving the suburbs
“The last time Americans fled the cities for the suburbs, from the 1950s to the 1980s, they were driven primarily by fear of crime. This time the migration is the consequence of the cities’ success,...
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How sprawl makes walkable places less affordable
Denver growth in the 1940s: Expanding the urban grid in every direction. Source: Denver Urbanism. Significant changes in urban real estate markets over the last two decades has invigorated downtowns...
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How America Uses Its Land
These fascinating maps challenge our perception of sprawling America – the urbanized area seems compact in comparison to all other uses, 3.6 percent of the total. However, the urban area is growing at...
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Pattern zones help development in the suburbs
Image Credit: Matthew Petty, Infill Group, and Matthew Hoffman, Miller Boskus Lack A new technique called a pattern zone can be used by cities and towns to make good urbanism a natural outcome of their...
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Millenial Sprawl – Realtors Wooing the Generation
Main events in Lakewood Ranch, FL. Millennials seek the live-work-play lifestyle, but evidence suggests they are no longer solely focused on compact, diverse urban centers. In an attempt to attract...
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The Bipartisan Cry of ‘Not in My Backyard’
A view of suburban Houston. Credit: Josh Haner/The New York Times The Department of Housing and Urban Development, wants to spur construction of mixed-income, multifamily housing. With more built, the...
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The Link Between Urban Sprawl and Life Expectancy
West Palm Beach, FL – Compact places encourage a healthier lifestyle and have potentially higher life expectancy than areas of urban sprawl A new study confirms cross-sectional associations between...
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Mixed-use neighborhood reshapes suburban landscape
Taking advantage of unexpected demand, the mixed-use Village Center is defined by three-to-five-story buildings and recalls the character of Huntsville’s historic town center. “Providence, which won a...
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Sprawl repair is essential, unavoidable
Rob Steuteville discusses the sprawl repair situation, concerns for the viability of repair actions, and the necessity of repairing sprawl.
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A Hub for New Local Businesses and New Places to Live
Alongside unsustainable sprawl, unsightly strip malls are too often a feature of our suburban landscape. This article draws ideas from DeSoto Marketplace in DeSoto, Texas. The approach here was...
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Battling Sprawl
Farmland lost to development from 1992 to 2012. The areas where the most land was lost are dark brown and red. (American Farmland Trust) More than 60 percent of all development took place on farmland...
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Why walkable cities are good for the economy
Legacy’s vibrant Main Street offers residents and employees a multitude of day to night destinations and traditional urban features such as treelined sidewalks and outdoor cafes. Much of suburban...
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