Tag Archives: culture


Tidbits and Events, Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character


Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character provides a catalog of techniques that emphasize “bottom up,” resident-based input. Such input includes local history, building forms, natural and open spaces, cultural assets and tradition, and related policy, planning, and regulatory examples. Here’s a 27 March update on developments and release events for the book. The […]

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 to urban settings.  One example is the overlap of built and natural environments, and the inspiration inherent in their combined appearance. I focus on water-influenced environments […]

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 under construction–remain? As Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character implies, these questions don’t have ready answers. They require careful assessment and review of corporate productivity […]

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 places–are a stage? As Futurecity Ltd cultural strategist Sherry Dobbin advises, the stage should be choreographed based on a comprehensive analysis of stakeholders’ fantasies and […]