Looking for a little ‘hands on’ inspiration for a cool town? Venture south of the equator to Argentina...

Making the list of both Fast Company magazine’s 30 Fastest Cities to Work, Live and Play and Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Cities’ to Visit is quite a feat, so what is Buenos Aires attraction? Referred to as the Paris of the South, here’s a fitting local viewpoint:

“Buenos Aires is not a place for grand sights or world famous buildings**, it’s more about the little urban experiences

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A sampling of the emerging consciousness for better cities…

So what are progressive, creative people saying about cities these days? Well, the only thing better than asking the regulars at a local, independent coffeehouse, is to ask the regulars at local, independent coffeehouses in 40 countries around the world.

That’s just what the folks at likemind, a rhythmic gathering of likeminded individuals sharing coffee and stories every third Friday morning at local third places did on October 19,

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Green buildings to the people reading this website is like buildings with four walls and a ceiling to the general population. So, it’s time to take a look at more advanced specifics of green building, especially with what is becoming less and less of a commodity: water. For instance, flying over Vegas last week for the ULI conference, one can easily see that that its main water supply, Lake Mead is down 100 feet and now only at half capacity. Coincidentally, the ULI is the source for this

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“I never leave the courtyard,“ says one of the tenants of the Bison Courtyard in the heart of the small town of Banff, Alberta, Canada (immediately surrounded by one of the most beautiful landscapes anywhere in the world, almost like a storybook).

The Bison Courtyard is just a modest $10 million building complex in scope, but it’s a shining example of what happens when progressive minds work collaboratively toward a shared vision that inspires them on a daily basis, enough so that I guess

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To recap the previous entry, Linus Torvalds galvanized an army of people to co-develop a superior ‘program’ called Linux, and Steve Jobs is able to interpret people’s values, principles and stories into stunningly designed products like the iMac and iPod.

Now, what if you combined the efforts and applied it to creative real estate development? You’d get a community of profoundly satisfied people committed to, entirely proud of, and inhabiting the phenomenally-designed place they help build.

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I am speaking on a panel today at the Urban Land Institute’s annual conference in Vegas, and the inevitable question will be, “What is it that you exactly do?“ The tagline above says it pretty succinctly, crowdsourcing cool places for creatives, which after explanation comes, “How is this done?“

By training city, business and community leaders to become a figurative combination of Linus Torvalds, inventor of Linux, and Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple. First, it’s important to understand

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Some people have been wondering how the creative class relates to cooltowns and to Richard Florida, who coined the term, creative class.

True story: Back in 1999 while on a business trip to Pittsburgh, one of my contacts suggested I just had to go see a Carnegie Mellon economist professor named Richard Florida because we were speaking the proverbial ‘same language’. I literally dragged my business associate with me who happened to have a history of working in sports agencies, including the

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There are many of us who feel that food, play and contributing to a cause can start to get routine-like. Thankfully, the innovation-tracking folks at Springwise have spotted some new ways to spice things up in those areas of our lives.

Group dining: You know there are people in your social or work circle that want to try out new restaurants or return to old favorites, but which friends, and which restaurants? Crazymenu not only allows the group to vote on where to eat, but once you pick one

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The name ‘Delaware’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue when naming places to be, so the folks in Wilmington had their work cut out for them. The transition of a neglected area into what is now being billed as the LOMA Design District is a good example of economic revitalization and destination building, but not a great model if you’re sensitive to gentrification or a typical creative because most of you probably won’t be able to afford living or leasing there.  Think ‘Meatpacking District’ in

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Continuing a look at world-changing design from the annual Fast Company series, 2007 Masters of Design, we introduce to you Philippe Starke from France, one of the elite who brings extraordinary design to the masses via Target.

He is currently garnering an international reputation for the emotional connections people have to the apartments and workplaces his company develops, many of which are historic renovations. No, they are not affordable by any means, but their fresh person-centric,

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