The tragic story no one wants to hear - your favorite, popular, neighborhood institution, the one that has the only ‘insert-unique-product/service-here’ in town and anchors the area’s history - is going out of business because the owner’s next of kin don’t want to carry it on and they can’t find anyone else.

What to do?  What to do?!

There are some city/neighborhood efforts to identify young entrepreneurs who want to continue the business, but that may not be the easiest route, as they’re

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It wasn’t too long ago that housing developers only built housing, retail developers only built retail, office developers only office.  Then the three began joint venturing to build them closer together, what was generally regarded as new urbanism/smart growth.

At last, real estate has evolved to where one developer not only constructs all three uses, but together in one building, and a complex of them at that.  What’s also significant is that it’s no longer reserved for avant garde real

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From the late 1800s to early 1900s our public health was largely linked to our built environment.  People were dying from communicable and waterborne diseases tied to overcrowding, poor sanitation and polluted air.  As a result, cities began to feature more open spaces, advanced public works and cleaner transit options - a public health model.

In the mid to late 1900s, we shifted to what is known as the ‘medical model’ approach to public health, with a focus on doctors treating specific

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...it’s healthy for just about everyone else, and communities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have been conducting such audits for 25 years.  The public health term for this is a health impact assessment (HIA), which measures the potential impacts of decisions on health (physical, emotional and mental), and identifies actions that can improve the results of those decisions”. 

According to Neal Kaufman, MD, MPH*, an HIA on our schools would result in:

- “Siting it where the

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What did it take to revive a neglected neighborhood with historic buildings slated for demolition?  The Podmajersky’s, three generations of one family that played a primary role since 1914 in establishing what is now known as the Chicago Arts District, 12 square blocks on Chicago’s near Southwest side that has been home to over 1500 artists over the last four decades.

Artists, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers, performance artists as well as individuals teaching in the arts live and work

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One of the greatest barriers to living downtown is that the scarcity of housing has often made it largely unaffordable.  Fortunately there are further signs that this will start to correct itself as more major home builders make the shift to cities, and not only that, but creating new urban divisions to do so.

National builder John Laing Homes established a new division, John Laing Urban, that “will focus on development of new communities that will cater to the growing demand for housing

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What to do with an abandoned mill founded in 1853 that used to employ thousands to manufacture sails for clipper ships?  Why, turns out it may provide the framework for what looks to be the most compelling, one-of-a-kind, modern new urban villages in Baltimore, MD.

Clipper Mill will feature 168 residences, 46,500 s.f. of office space, and 51,000 s.f. of creative light industry and studio space, as well as dining, grocery and athletic amenities.  On top of that, it’s located right at a light

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I’m working with a number of developers that are in various stages of planning, and we’re investigating a strategy of developing buildings that are more anthropomorphic - taller than they are wide, just as is the rule for windows.  Verticality is more human-like, horizontality more machine-like (ie cars, ships, planes).

The factors in favor of smaller, vertical buildings, as far as value to the home buyer/resident:
1. People feel more like they own their own place, have their own identity.
2.

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Yesterday I highlighted ‘those lucky Macromedia employees’, but they got nothing on those who work at the Affinity Lab, or should I say work and play… and rock…

The topmost images show the ‘Lab’ (as it is affectionately called) by day, with over a dozen or so entrepreneurs working on their own businesses at their own workspaces around a common ‘living room’ (with kitchen.)  ‘Lab members’ commonly collaborate on projects, and every so often they gather for birthdays, goodbyes, politically

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