As we’re witnessing in communities from the Middle East to Wall Street, people are taking it upon themselves to organize and effect lasting change on behalf of the triple bottom line (being economically, socially and environmentally beneficial). These groups aren’t advocating having swarms of people as a better structure for governance, they’re just tired of what’s known in business as the ‘Big Head‘ (represented by the red in the graph above) having too much control, such as in

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This is apparently Seattle’s first transit-oriented development (TOD). If it gets better than this with TODs so come, hold on to your seats, you’re in for a fun ride.

The starting point is a 9-acre parking lot (left of photo), pretty much your standard building block in many U.S. cities, though adjacent to a major bus transfer station with planned light rail access, which means walkable urban village development is a natural next step. However, one half of what makes this a model for the rest

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The vast majority of large-scale mixed-use development projects in the past have been predominantly national-chain retail. With the rise of the conscious consumer however, that rigid investment formula is beginning to crack, such as with The Piazza in Philadelphia and now with The Triangle in Austin, Texas, a 22-acre mixed-use urban infill development of 529 apartments, 150 condos and 120,000 s.f. of retail.

Not surprisingly, it was initially planned as a typical shopping center with national

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One would be hard pressed to find any real estate development firms firmly committed to investing in crowdsourced placemaking yet… except one. See Renaissance Downtowns’ recent press release below:

July 20, 2010

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It’s not often that you hear a headline like that, and I’m not sure it’s ever been claimed actually, but the real estate development firm, Renaissance Downtowns is committing to indeed, crowdsource downtowns. Not only that, but they’re focused on attracting creatives, with the help of CoolTown Beta Communities.

“Renaissance intends to address the needs of the Creatives by engaging this emerging market through crowdsourcing methodologies that have lead to the success of many technology

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Back in 2005 we featured Ben, Naomi and Josh, founders of the next generation real estate development firm, Sustainable Community Associates (SCA) in this article, Developing a community for their peers, whereas their peers were recent college graduates. At the time they were in the planning stages of a mixed-use green development, which in fact was profiled by Ben on this site as far back as 2004 in A CoolTown block in Ohio.

Well, here’s a message from Josh with some rather exciting

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When the founders of North Avenue Community Development Corporation in Milwaukee wanted to see change in their economically-challenged North Avenue neighborhood, they realized it was up to them to solve it entrepreneurially and build the change they wanted to see.

Thus, they developed the $4.8 million Toussaint Square, a new three-story building integreted with a renovated mixed-use building providing 24 affordable homes to retain local residents who wanted to stay in the neighborhood as

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The cities in northwest England, namely Liverpool and Manchester, weren’t transitioning very gracefully from the industrial era. Enter Tom Bloxham, founder of the wildly progressive development company, Urban Splash in 1993, who all but single-handedly invented loft living in those cities. The unique story of how Urban Splash came to be, however, is a pretty typical one for the kind of in-demand developer he is today… he had no initial intention whatsoever of being a developer.

Tom began

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An interview with Rick Destito, the young, progressive developer of the artist/musician building profiled yesterday…

Why are you dedicating this building to artists and musician tenants?
“In my travels around the country, over and over again the most vibrant, exciting, and interesting places I have been were consumed with arts and music. It’s that feeling of creativity and ideas, that energy that comes from it all. It’s something we didn’t have much of back home in Syracuse in a concentrated

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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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