Sustaining Place

Place Parts, Episode 16: Place Exists, Just Listen

Who says that place is all about engineered or built environments? It isn’t, a point I emphasize many times in Sustaining a City’s Culture and…

First Comes ‘Place-Receiving’

Is there a predicate to “placemaking” where a place is analyzed and mastered? Is that process of immersion, which I so love to emphasize, part…

Place Parts, Episode 15: River, City, and Town

Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character begins with the notion that communities reflect the fusion of everyday life with the various forces and environments common…

Place Parts, Episode 14: Towards Hints of Resilience in Pandemica

When Sustaining Place began late last Spring, I wrote several pieces about the emergence phases from the first English lockdown. There are parallels today, as…

Place Parts, Episode 13: Will the Technology Campus Sustain?

Today, we pose questions based on Vodaphone’s world headquarters in Newbury (and the “Shaw Valley” housing development next door). Post-pandemic, will what is now empty–or…

A Farewell to One-Size-Fits-All Urbanism

Like idiomatic phrases that say similar things in a variety of languages, urban environments are customized adaptations to different conditions. Sustaining culture and character is…

Place Parts, Episode 12: Compatible, Affordable, and Misplaced?

Today, in Episode 12, we say goodbye to a busy book launch week with a simple proposition. We may (as is the current case in…

Place Parts, Episode 11: Book Launch Summit, with Tigran Haas

Today, we celebrate Book Launch Day for Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character. This book focuses on the culture and character of one city compared…

Place Parts, Episode 10: Choreographing Place, with Sherry Dobbin

As we emerge from the pandemic, why center only on architectural compatibility or placemaking listicles? Why not admit the common adage, that the city–and its…

Place Parts, Episode 9: Routes to Understanding Place, with Rob Cowan

Rob Cowan is a one-stop-shop for an understanding of place, and the associated role of urban design. Today, we talk about his many contributions to…