When I was working my way through college I had a part-time gig delivering phone books. In that line of work you got paid by the pound so it made the most sense to deliver to as many apartment buildings as you could. A lot of apartment buildings are dreary places – long corridors of…
The Chumash people, so the legend goes, were created when the earth goddess Hutash planted seeds on Santa Cruz Island. The seeds became men and women. Over time the people prospered and filled the island. Hutash built a bridge using a rainbow and they crossed to the mainland, populating the area. Cities grow like seeds.…
When I think of architecture and urban design I think of people who are working together to create pleasing spaces that promote all kinds of social interaction. Tongva Park in Santa Monica is a fairly small piece of land that feels expansive because of the way its interconnected walkways hide and reveal new areas to…
When it comes to architecture and urban design we often hear about the designer’s intentions but we hear less often about the impact the design has upon users. But according to John Cary good design must be considered within the web of impacts on users, stakeholders, and community. At every level, design is a matrix…
You’ve heard of urban sprawl. Chances are you’re quite at home with it. But you might not be aware of how fast it spreads – an acre of land is lost to human development every 2-1/2 minutes according to the website Disappearing West. An interactive map of disappearing open space gives a county-by-county view of…
The idea behind the flying-saucer design of Apple’s new headquarters is to generate plenty of cross-traffic and promote serendipitous encounters. That may be the case, but according to an article by Hunter Oatman-Stanford in Collector’s Weekly the design really isn’t terribly new. Connecticut General’s new corporate estate included snack bars, ping-pong tables, shuffleboards, bowling alleys, tennis…
A collective of urban designers and an economist based in Brazil have assembled an amazing collection of before and after photos showing improvements to urban landscapes. One thing that is immediately clear when you start browsing the gallery is that it doesn’t take massive construction – or demolition – to make a city…
Candy Chang’s installation project “Before I Die” transforms an abandoned house in New Orleans into a place for people to dream about what could be.
