• Olympic Stadium, View from Hackney

    A Victory for London’s 99%?

    Last August we wondered, in the course of writing about the London riots, whether that city’s 2012 Olympic Games would live up to their billing as the “Regeneration Games” for the blighted East End where they’ll be located. Michael Powell, […]

     
  • Arapahoe Acres, Aerial View

    Saving Arapahoe Acres

    Arapahoe Acres is a nationally famous suburban subdivision located just south of the University of Denver in Englewood.  It was  built between 1949-1957 by the developer Edward Hawkins, with help from the architect Eugene Sternberg. Sternberg was then employed by […]

     
  • Water and The Wilderness City

    Water and The Wilderness City

    My title comes from that of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute’s 21st annual conference held last week at The University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.  “The Wilderness City: Nature, Culture, and Economy in the Next West” was framed […]

     
  • Citizen Input on 9th and Colorado: Architectural Form

    Citizen Input on 9th and Colorado: Architectural Form

    This series of posts has been chronicling the development of the old University of Colorado Health Sciences Center site at 9th and Colorado, a relatively small (28 acre) site that’s being developed as a mixed use urban neighborhood.  Attending the […]

     
  • Educating for Urban Sustainability…And Remembering Doug Darden

    Educating for Urban Sustainability…And Remembering Doug Darden

    The Chronicle of Higher Education, to which I’m a long-time subscriber, channeled its inner urbanist last week with three city-related articles in the January 27 edition. Scott Carlson wrote about “America’s Health Threat: Poor Urban Design.”  He featured the work […]

     
  • Modified design, left and Calatrava original, right (The Denver Post)

    When Urban “Branding” Amounts to Less Rather than More

    Ten days ago The Denver Post contained a story by Ray Mark Rinaldi reporting on the modified plan for a new hotel and transit hub at Denver International  Airport  that has taken shape in the wake of the airport’s breakup with Spanish […]

     
  • 9th and Colorado Design Guidelines and the Question of “Feel”

    9th and Colorado Design Guidelines and the Question of “Feel”

    The first 2012 meeting of the Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District Board on January 5 was dedicated to preliminary discussion of the design guidelines for the site. There was an informative presentation by the consulting architect (SEM) and a senior city […]

     
  • What’s in a Name?

    What’s in a Name?

    The new year has brought a new name to the New Urban Network website and the print newsletter New Urban News.  They’re now called Better! Cities & Towns (hereafter, BCT).  In announcing the changes editor Robert Steuteville noted that the […]

     
  • The Greatest Grid

    The Greatest Grid

    At least that’s what the Museum of the City of New York proclaims in the title of a new exhibition about the 1811 Manhattan street plan that’s currently celebrating its 200th birthday.  It’s a bold claim, given the grid’s great […]

     
  • Living at 9th and Colorado: The Residential Component

    Living at 9th and Colorado: The Residential Component

    The Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District (CBHD) Board’s final meeting of 2011, on December 4, was  dedicated to a review of the site’s conceptual plan and a new presentation on the residential component.  Material presented at the last couple of meetings […]

     
  • Denver De-Occupied

    Denver De-Occupied

    It happened around 11:30 PM on Monday, December 19th.  The Denver Post has the story and some pictures, including this one: This was the scene at the eastern edge of Civic Center Park (where the occupation moved from adjacent Lincoln Park […]

     
  • Urban Culture and the Intangible Heritage of Place: ‘Graffiti’ Removal and Preservation

    Urban Culture and the Intangible Heritage of Place: ‘Graffiti’ Removal and Preservation

    ANARCHETIQUETTE: The removal and preservation of wall writings on public buildings before they are covered up or the buildings themselves are demolished or renovated; efforts to conserve an intangible heritage that would otherwise be eliminated. Since at least the 1970s […]