U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports are upgrading facilities in anticipation of supersized ships transiting the Panama Canal in 2014, while some smaller port cities are strategically positioned to fight for their share of the new business.
In his book Triumph of the City, Edward Glaeser takes the reader on a global tour of cities and regions past, present, and future, offering insights into the causes of urban decline and a study of density and “smarter environmentalism.”
Parks are increasingly being viewed as fiscal drains that further endanger a mayor’s bottom line. To counter that view comes Alexander Garvin, thinker in the realm of cities and public spaces. Read a review of his book Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities, in which he presents the rationale for considering public parks as fundamental components of the built environment.
In his book Retail Rescue, architect Ronald Altoon touches on broad topics, listing 11 ideas to create memorable destinations that transcend identification solely as retail centers, such as contextual evaluation, urban framework/infrastructure environment, and “they don’t know what they don’t know.” Read Howard Kozloff’s review.
It’s a mistake to ignore centuries of urban history when looking at city design and planning, writes Witold Rybczynski, a professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania, in his book “Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas About Cities.” Rybczynski acquaints us with some of the key historical names and approaches to urban planning, both successes and failures, and helps us understand how the lessons learned might apply to today’s ever-changing urban settings.
As the economy finally—perhaps—emerges from the prolonged recession, it is difficult to imagine a future in which the United States continues to lead the world— technologically, innovatively, and economically. This becomes particularly more difficult in the face of the barrage of reports about China and India materializing as the next world powers.
Hotel fundamentals are improving as panic and capitulation give way to a slow-growth environment. Yet, the global response to the economic crisis threatens to yield to sovereign risk in Greece and Spain and undermine a gradual, nascent recovery. These were the major messages at the Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro conference Meet the Money: Unlocking the Game Changers for the Coming Recovery, held in early May in Los Angeles.