Hot trends for 2005?

read more…

When does creativity really happen in cities?

The Renaissance in Florence.  Silicon Valley.  Japan post WWII.  New York City at the turn of the century.  Paris and Impressionism.  Some rather extreme bursts of creativity over about 40 years at a time.  Coincidence?  Historian Peter Hall doesn’t think so, and outlines the common elements in his stellar book, Cities In Civilization.

1. Disorder. As Chris Gibbons, who pioneered economic gardening puts it, economic growth happens at the edge

read more…

Who will make downtowns succeed?

Successful downtowns require a successful retail district.  Today, that retail district must be developed as a retail entertainment district to survive and thrive.  So, who should that district focus on?

Again, we quote our star of the week, retail entertainment expert Michael Beyard, “The ability to reach market segments that are easily overlooked - including women, members of generations X and Y, and even baby boomers, who are getting older but not

read more…

The merging of entertainment and retail

The conflicts: Museums and performing arts centers are struggling amid public budget cuts and a rather stuffy image.  Meanwhile, downtown retail districts are having difficulties maintaining its local culture as well as attracting large crowds (as the old theaters once did).

The opportunity:In the words of retail entertainment expert Michael Beyard, “Retail entertainment offers these institutions an opportunity to broaden their markets and compete

read more…

Main streets are no longer the department-store-oriented retail districts they used to be.  Now they must be entertainment retail districts to survive and thrive, which is consistent with our shift to an experience economy.  Here are the new retail categories as the industry resource Urban Land Institute sees them.

Fun and leisure - interactive sports, sports bar, coffee bar, outdoor cafe, billiards/bowling/games;
Nesting - home entertainment, furnishings, and electronics;
Health and beauty -

read more…

Learning the economic value of authenticity from Argentina

Argentina’s economic woes aren’t too different from struggling small towns and city neigborhoods throughout the U.S.  However, entrepreneurs are realizing that there’s a path to prosperity that begins in their own backyard, and it focuses on the empty feeling travelers may get of experiencing the tourist sites without enjoying an authentic taste of the day-day culture.

Here’s an except from a Fast Company magazine article that

read more…

Town Haul on TLC/Discovery Channel - Open your mind

Hey, give Genevieve Gorder (and her designer cohorts) some credit here.

Formerly of Trading Spaces, she’s the host of a new show with similar ideas called Town Haul on TLC/Discovery Channel that is dedicating six episodes to helping invigorate a tiny town, Jeffersonville, NY, pop. 500.  This is more documentary than reality television, and I know other towns wish they were chosen instead, but listen to the naysaying ‘professionals’:

“The

read more…

Planning and economic development: Like oil and water?

Usually, unfortunately, honestly, yes.  Planners are often from the left, economic development the right.  Planners look 5-20 years ahead.  Economic development reps focus on the now.  Planners have policy backgrounds, academic debate and focus on, well, general plans.  Those in econ dev have business educations, think entrepreneurially and concentrate on site/company specific projects.  These of course are generalizations, but guess

read more…

Banners bring some style

Just a few banners applied here to a restored historic building help bring it to life.  SOHO in Manhattan, NY utilizes them more effectively than any place I’ve seen - you could just feel the creativity in the air (the neighborhood’s rep) as you walked through a parade of them, flapping casually and colorfully with the breeze.

...and as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, they bring some cold hard cash and identity to the downtown as well.  It also helps give the

read more…

Why are these banners worth $50K?

They’re worth at least that much a year in cash to a main street, but that’s just the beginning.  Just ask Sylvia Allen of Allen Consulting, who is a guru at attracting sponsor dollars for main streets and has the following tip:

Simply putting up attractive vertical banners throughout a small downtown will bring in a good share of revenue to market its merchants, not to mention providing a tremendous amount of identity.  People often identify a mall as a

read more…

If only this were real…

Now this is a true piazza in design and proportion, just the right scale, surrounded by restaurants and entertainment, always full of people, and even located in the U.S.  Unfortunately, the second and third floors are not offices and apartments and it’s a tourist attraction in a Las Vegas resort on the Strip.

The point here is not to rip on all the things Las Vegas does wrong, but to learn from what happens when the top designers in the world focus on building

read more…

A very cool town founder…

His name is Kiki Wallace, and he’s the founder of a striking new town called Prospect located outside Boulder, Colorado, as introduced in yesterday’s blog.

I’ve known him for a few years since the town first broke down - he was one of the first to get his hands on the VW New Beetle when it came out, and he could never attend a conference because he didn’t have the patience to sit and watch speakers who talked about what he was already doing.  Well, he couldn’t

read more…

Finally, a contemporary new town

The irony is that of the hundreds of new pedestrian-oriented towns being built, hardly any of them look remotely, well, new.  Most of them reflect the traditional styles of 1920s architecture, which is fine in the sense that much of that era produced some of the most beautiful towns in the country, but not so fine in perpetuating the myth that we can’t produce even more beautiful towns with modern design and materials?

I experienced what is perhaps a sign

read more…

The secret to Boulder’s downtown pedestrian street?

Boulder’s downtown pedestrian street (Pearl Street) is one of only a few in the U.S. that survived the regional enclosed mall phase that began in the 1960s and now ending.  What’s their secret?

Pearl Street’s shops and restaurants account for only 30% of its square footage, all on the ground floor. A whopping 52% is devoted to private offices, mainly on the second and third floors, while the rest (18%) is government offices and other

read more…

San Francisco’s hidden alley destination

As they say, “If San Francisco had a French quarter, Belden Place would be it.“  It’s an intimate, human-scaled alley lined with cafes, tucked away between Bush and Pine, Kearny and Montgomery streets in the Financial District.  The entire pedestrian-only street (paseo) is one elongated dining room, and a larger version of the ones in Sienna, Spain.

While they do celebrate Bastille Day in the alley, the day-day culinary experience is anything but

read more…

Since when does dining in an alley provide a great view?

The answer?  When you focus on designing great alleys.

Narrow, pedestrian-only streets (paseos) are becoming quite popular.  They help focus attention on people, the most interesting subject matter to the human eye.  This ‘people stage’ is made more dramatic with a terminating building(s).

Building facades that feature human-scaled, human-designed detailing are that much more appealing to - humans, especially if you intend to look

read more…

Why the renewed popularity in the small car?

The MINI Cooper is one of the biggest automotive success stories in the last few years.  BMW announces a 1-Series to come to the U.S.  Volvo plans an even smaller car than the smallest car they’ve introduced in a decade.  Mercedes is even planning a new brand called Smart, where two Smart cars can fit in one parking space.  Honda, Ford are following suit.  Chevy already has the Aveo.

What’s going on here?  While a lot of it has to do with rising

read more…

What happens when places are designed for people?

You get places like this.  The scene seems so natural, but it’s actually very unnatural here in the U.S. (the shot is in Paris).

First of all, there’d be a line of cars parked alongside the curb, which would immediately block any view more than 10’ in front of you.  This is one reason why waterfront seating seems so dramatic by comparison.  The buildings on the opposite side of the street would be pushed back and largely out of the picture,

read more…

Every main street needs a Ben’s Chili Bowl

In addition to the new and exciting restaurants and shops (eg the CakeLoves) that can spark a downtown revival, you need the neighborhood institutions, the ones that withstood the riots, the mass exodus to the burbs, urban renewal and the relentless unpredictability of keeping a restaurant open.  Why?  Because it not only provides a sense of history and place, but a sense of security that the same people have been in the same place for so

read more…