Yes, it’s no coincidence that the founders of Facebook are of the Millennial/Gen Y generation and that their most loyal followers are largely the same.  However, that’s now expanding, and it’s more of a sign of things to come than a fad (unless they sell out like MySpace).  So it may be worth taking the time to understand how it can benefit your community, build better places.  It can… tremendously.  Even if Facebook eventually goes away, social networking is only going to grow.

One way to

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There’s something about yogurt owners and progressive entrepreneurs, or maybe there’s just something in the yogurt…

First came a lesson in authenticity. Korea began enjoying a yogurt boom when it introduced 100% pure yogurt with 100% fresh fruit toppings.

Then came the opportunity of applying that success to creatives, when Korean entrepreneurs, staying true to the principles, opened yogurt shops that emphasized award-winning interior design. Studies show aesthetics comes first when it comes

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Many of us are familiar with car sharing, popularized by Zipcar, where cars are rented by the hour with a fixed parking space. Regular car sharing members also long for the day where they don’t have to return the car back to original parking space, but leave it wherever they are (as long as they’re in a designated metropolitan area).

Well, that time has come, and it provides a model for what the U.S. auto industry could evolve to.

Daimler (Mercedes) introduced its Smart car2go ‘city

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New York City may be playing the lead tune when it comes to pedestrian-only/car-free placemaking, but San Francisco is following right along to the point it’s sounding like a duet.

In 2008, Manhattan closed several key streets to cars on Saturdays with Summer Streets, and San Francisco followed immediately with Sunday Streets. On February 25, The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the mayor is considering closing the city’s main thoroughfare to cars, and the next day Mayor Bloomberg

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This is one of those ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ pictures.  It’s a poster by the City of Muenster, Germany, titled Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle.

Of course this assumes the average number of occupants per vehicle, which is around 1.2-1.4 worldwide during commuting hours. Considering how cities are going green by implementing smart grids, which is fast becoming the energy infrastructure standard, we’ll soon start to see the

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Amsterdam, The Netherlands already has a global reputation for being a biking city (within a biking country), which is fast becoming a poster child for a 21st century infrastructure that isn’t reliant on automobiles. Not coincidentally, a walkable built environment is much more conducive to a digital infrastructure replacing an asphalt one, which is allowing Amsterdam to also now lead the world in raising the bar for what being green is.

Some of the green programs that will be completed by

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Crowdsourcing is often used as a tool to prove there’s a market in order to attract the capital needed to execute the project. However, while participants may not have as much input in a place that already has the capital secured, the fact that the project is indeed going to be implemented one way or another is highly motivating.

Once such development is a redevelopment of an existing building into 16 condos, starting under $200K, in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in the heart of

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Today’s entry is brought to you by social engagement designer Brian Corrigan of the soon-to-be MobFuse, a social engagement design agency.

“We all want to have fun at work and studies show that when we are having fun, we get more done.  So what if someone designed an office like a carnival: fun, colorful and lots of cool signage.

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How is creativity helping restaurants thrive in this economy? According to Technomic, a leading food-industry consulting and research firm, here are the leading restaurant trends for 2009:

1. Experimentation/innovation: “Look for new menu items, kinds of service and pricing policies. Restaurants will be designed differently, too.“ Restaurants can’t just sell food to survive anymore, they need to provide experiences. Busboys & Poets in Washington DC is a great example, combining a restaurant,

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As many now know, housing sizes have peaked, and articles like USA Today’s Americans are moving on up to smaller, smarter homes are communicating a new American Dream that small is in. Listen to what people are saying,

“There’s a shift in the culture. Build what you need. Build what inspires you. Don’t build to impress your neighbors. I don’t feel we need more space. If designed right, less space can work well. There are lots of things that can be done without spending a lot of money,“

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