Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character (American release, February 22, 2021, UK and European release, Spring 2021) focuses on how to understand the innate identity of an urban place. The book provides a catalog of techniques that emphasize “bottom up,” resident-based input. Such input includes local history, building forms, natural and […]
How do we unearth and rediscover landscapes which we can no longer see? Personal and collective memories in defining a place’s culture and character have tremendous value. Notably, the built environment is not today’s focus. Instead, with Shannon Nichol, we discuss the landscape environment’s “buried” memories. Shannon is a founding […]
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 […]
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 Character. If you need more convincing, listen to Trish Hansen in the video below. I spoke to her on March 15, as she embarked upon […]
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 of the placemaking process, or should it be called something else? To many, the question poses a distinction without a difference. Nonetheless, in talking about […]
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 […]
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 the United Kingdom) speak regularly about the need for well-designed, quality housing, with a green component to provide for beauty and public health. But as […]
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 to another, how we distinguish and change urban places, and the actors involved. Please join collaborator Dr. Tigran Haas and me as we discuss the […]
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 urbanism in the United Kingdom, including cartoons, words, training, and methodologies. These contributions played a big part in the practical sections of Sustaining a City’s […]
