design

Atlantic City. Photo by Tim Trad/Unsplash

Talking Headways Podcast: Designing the Megaregion

By Jen Hawse / On June 11th, 2020
Jonathan Barnett, emeritus professor of Practice in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, joined Jeff Wood of Talking Headways on June 11, 2020. They discussed his new book, Designing the Megaregion: Meeting Urban Challenges at a New Scale. Barnett chats about where the idea of megaregions came from, environmental planning within the landscape, the importance of transit connections in these regions, and how we can coordinate megaregions administratively.

Webinar: Designing the Megaregion and Healing the Divided City

Much of the economic and population growth in the U.S. is happening within 12 urban megaregions. Investment in these megaregions can add stress to the environment, increase gridlock and air traffic delays, and make inequality worse, or it can help stabilize the environment, balance transportation systems, and create walkable neighborhoods with diverse housing choices.

Webinar: Design for Good

Almost everything around us was designed by someone; our homes, schools, workplaces, and nearly every imaginable public space. Design is everywhere and, for better or for worse, it shapes the quality of our lives. 

Webinar: Harnessing and Measuring the Creative Potential of Social Design

Businesses, governments, foundations and the social sector are investing millions of dollars in social design as the most promising methodology for solving the complex human challenges of our time. In this webinar, Cheryl Heller, Founding Chair of the Design for Social Innovation MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and President of the design lab CommonWise, along with Anne LaFond, Director of the John Snow, Inc. Center for Health Information, Monitoring and Evaluation (CHIME), present an overview of what Social Design is and how it works.

A Busy Woman

By Cheryl Heller / On March 21st, 2018
Something I learned in 2001: unlike classic psychiatrists, who will drag out a conversation for years without giving much away if they can manage it, psychopharmacologists will, after half an hour’s probing, tell you bluntly what they think is wrong with you.

Dear Jeff Bezos, Have You Ever Been to the Amazon?

By Cheryl Heller / On March 14th, 2018
This letter is a response to your request for ideas—for the philanthropic strategy you’re thinking about. You say you like long term, but you’re drawn to “the other end of the spectrum: the right now.” I get that, and have the perfect answer for you, one that serves both ends at the same time.

#ForewordFriday: Democratic Design Edition

By Katharine Sucher / On December 15th, 2017
For decades, collaborative design has helped enliven neighborhoods and promote racial, economic, and social justice. But in an era marked by climate change, growing income inequality, and major advances in technology, designers are acknowledging the limitations of public forums and other conventional methods of community engagement.

#ForewordFriday: Dignified Design Edition

By Katharine Sucher / On November 3rd, 2017
Well-designed spaces are not just a matter of taste or a question of aesthetics; they literally shape our ideas about who we are and what we deserve. Design impacts our health, our education, our community, our sense of self-worth, and more, yet all-too-often design is viewed as a luxury. To address critical problems of access and inequity at home and around the world, good design must transcend the endless coverage of multi-million dollar homes and Silicon Valley office spaces to become a key means of uplifting those who need it most.

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