urban condition photos
Urban Archive
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Beloved and Abandoned: A Platting Named Portland
Posted on March 21, 2010 | 4 CommentsIn the 4000-year history of the grid, American incarnations are relatively new, appearing first about 300 years ago, frequently as a simple, orthogonal and often square (such as Portland’s) ‘Hippodamian’... -
Unplanned Best Urbanism, Adaptive Mix of Uses
Posted on March 14, 2010 | No CommentsPostponed, adaptive mixed use and walkable neighbourhoods. At the perimeter of this early 20th century city stood proud, simple or embelished houses on a quiet street;... -
Goodbee Square:The Quest for a Contemporary Urban Pattern
Posted on March 8, 2010 | No CommentsGoodbee Square, a recent project by Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company constitutes a fertile departure from previous DPZ plans, integrating novel elements of traffic flow, pedestrian movement, traffic safety, park allocation... -
“Urbanesque”:Town square amidst asphalt
Posted on March 5, 2010 | No CommentsUrbanesque: An imperfect mix of 19th century urbanism with 20th century technology. Like the Promenade Shops in Saucon Valey ( see earlier post) this square, “La Grande Place” ,... -
A Good House Is Better in a Good Neighbourhood
Posted on March 5, 2010 | No CommentsDevelopers and builders generally display a handful of house models for prospective customers to choose from. They are flipped right and left, and adjusted slightly to evolve into a... -
Old Urbanism to Fused Grid – Montpellier
Posted on February 28, 2010 | No CommentsNetwork Transformation Montpellier in 2004 took a bold and unprecedented step to turn the entire 800-year old fortified city into a pedestrian realm. It adapted its inherited organic grid... -
Main Street, Main Stage
Posted on February 26, 2010 | No CommentsSame day, time and Small Town. Two public realms centuries and realities appart. Main Street beautified and “fixed”, displaying history, small retail and street parking; it stands empty. All... -
Arrested Evolution – A living urban past
Posted on February 26, 2010 | No CommentsIt didn’t happen and won’t happen. People walking these streets will not experience the clutter of evolution that accommodates the car, ever. Car-free means no clutter, no noise, no fumes;... -
Strasbourg – Old urbanism to FusedGrid
Posted on February 26, 2010 | No CommentsStrasbourg, France turned much of the old fortified city into a pedestrian priority realm. It adapted its inherited organic street network to the car and light rail by applying the... -
Frankfurt – Old urbanism to Fused Grid
Posted on February 26, 2010 | No CommentsFrankfurt, Germany turned much of the old fortified city into a pedestrian priority realm. It adapted its inherited organic street network to the car and rail by applying the Fused...