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It Is a Matter of Scale or What is the Connection between Brain Size and Sprawl

By Admin / On September 26th, 2011
Scale is fundamental to urban design. If you get it right, and achieve a well-proportioned space between buildings, you have a sound basis to build upon. Even if the architecture is far from perfect, the public realm you create can be decent and comfortable. If you get the scale wrong and your master plan is built, even the most lustrous architecture won’t remediate the failure of space-making; people might still use it for utilitarian reasons (think the parking lot of a Wal-Mart), but will not enjoy it.
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Reduced or Not, the Mortgage Interest Deduction Can Help Fix Sprawl

By Galina Tachieva / On September 19th, 2011
As of late, the mortgage interest deduction (MID), a tax break many Americans have become accustomed to, has become the focus of much debate and controversy. It first became the subject of heated discussion when President Obama’s debt commission suggested its reduction. They argued that in addition to reducing deficits, such reform could also help slow the growth of sprawl.
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Two Unmentionable Words

By James S. Russell / On July 19th, 2011
I was in Salt Lake City some time ago and was advised sotto voce that it would be unwise to voice a certain term. In Kansas it’s just not done either, a local explained. Bruce Katz, who heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute no less, suggested less offensive words. These unutterable words? Climate change. In large swaths of the country, bullying by climate-change skeptics has made these words unsuitable for use in civil discourse. “They just start arguments,” people have told me. “People can’t get past those terms. You’ll never reach them,” say most others.
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High Line Opens New Stretch of Spiky Flowers, Amblers, Voyeurs: Interview

By James S. Russell / On June 7th, 2011
The High Line, a hairline of greenery running 22 blocks atop a nearly forgotten railroad viaduct, has improbably become a global phenomenon. Threading its way between factories tangled with water tanks and fire escapes, the dilapidated viaduct was turned into a park in 2009 and now attracts human traffic jams. A neighbor has put on coy fire-escape performances. I hear that guests in a hotel that looms above the park sometimes undress for the pleasure of the strolling throngs.
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From Temples to Office Towers in Kunming

By R. Edward Grumbine / On November 3rd, 2010
The Bamboo Temple is one of the major Buddhist shrines in Kunming. Built in the 13th century, restored in 1890, and is set high above the city surrounded by native forest and plantation. The temple is well cared for unlike some I have visited in China. Like all such sites, it is heavily visited by tourists as well as active religious practitioners. Two ancient cypress trees (said to be 450 years old) guard the entrance and carefully manicured magnolias and pear trees grace the inner courtyard.

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