Design and Planning
Discover how experts drive innovation in urban design, infrastructure, adaptive reuse, and community‑centered planning
In an Urban Land opinion piece, Mariela Alfonzo, founder of State of Place, argues for the economic development potential for walkability in places like Houston.
Many Americans face significant community design-related barriers to living a healthy life, according to ULI’s new report America in 2015, with more than half saying they cannot walk to shopping and entertainment in their communities.
A six-year-old attempt to build a $650 million high-density, mixed-use development in northern San Diego continues to stir debate about the role of new urbanism in a city known for suburban sprawl.
Hines is known for developing iconic buildings in Houston—notably One Shell Plaza, Pennzoil Place, and the Houston Galleria—and around the world. But when the company first proposed developing a new office building on a blighted block in downtown Houston, many in the Houston real estate community scratched their heads.
The successful development of the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio, set into motion a nationwide flurry of development of urban sports-oriented entertainment districts, as municipal officials across the country reimagined their city centers as places where people live, work, and play.
A mixed-use urban district in the Houston suburbs has created a much-needed pedestrian-friendly setting for office tenants, apartment dwellers, hotel guests, and retail/restaurant patrons.
The American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association have selected six recipients to receive the 2015 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards, including the new Cedar Rapids Public Library, designed by OPN Architects.
As the only major U.S. city without formal zoning, Houston has a reputation as a freewheeling place where anything goes. But in truth, a complex patchwork of public and private regulation has evolved to impose order.
The most expensive apartments per square foot in Houston are in a new tower overlooking a new park in a new residential neighborhood now blossoming downtown. That tower, One Park Place, proved that luxury rental housing can thrive in a central business district still dominated by high-rise office properties.
Houston’s iconic NRG Astrodome “can and should live on” as a multiuse park, according to a report released by ULI. The Harris County Commissioners Court, the county’s governing body, has approved the proposal and referred it to the county’s Sports and Convention Corp.
The Crimean Embankment, a 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) site, was fully pedestrianized just over a year ago. Not long ago, this sort of public space was hard to imagine anywhere in Moscow. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is intent on changing this—and making over this 0.6-mile (1 km) stretch of riverfront is just the beginning.
Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent, according to new research by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.