A small town in Pennsylvania designed by Frederick Olmsted is trying to turn a corner after years of decline by building on its history as a city designed to be in tune with nature. The AP’s Ramit Plushnick-Masti writes how Olmsted designed Vandergrift, 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh and its streets to follow the river. [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, renewal | Tagged: small cities, sustainability | 1 Comment »
Speaking of national capital green spaces in need of repair (as we do in our post on Brasilia below), last week the National Coalition to Save Our Mall released its “3rd Century Mall” plan to revitalize and orient the nation’s front yard. Greater Greater Washington gives an overview of the recommendations, including better transportation options, [...]
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The capital of Brazil, Brasilia is a planned city with parks and open spaces designed at the height of automotive thinking in the late 1950s. The city was laid out by Lucio Costa and the buildings by famed and still-living centenarian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Many of the buildings are iconic and beautiful in their modern [...]
Filed under: international | Tagged: brazil, design | 12 Comments »
There’s a sad article in the Detroit News about that city’s 250-acre Eliza Howell Park. The grandson of the benefactor who gave 138 acres of the park to the city is asking that it be given back to the family so that he can develop it into a big box grocery store and homes. Kenneth [...]
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Nina-Marie Lister in Places: cities “have reassessed their underused harbors and riverfronts, and committed to costly and complicated clean-up processes with the goal of stimulating redevelopment. Cities worldwide are rediscovering and reengaging with the water’s edge. Early projects like London’s Docklands and New York’s Battery Park City, which took shape in the 1980s, have been [...]
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Forbes.com today ran a “Best City Parks” article and slide show. The list is different in that it doesn’t simply give the most well known city parks in the country. Sure, Central Park is mentioned, but also highlighted are some of the lesser publicized but loved greenspaces that define what urban parks can be. This [...]
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Should doctors give prescribe park use? That’s exactly what San Francisco physician Daphne Miller is doing, and she writes for the Washington Post about getting patients healthier through these public amenities. She begins: “I have a StairMaster right in my own basement, but honestly it’s been there for years gathering dust and making me feel [...]
Filed under: health | 3 Comments »
There’s something about pleasant fall days in city parks filled with people. Below is a picture from Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. this past Sunday, which was particularly warm. Many were gathered for what may be one of the last gatherings until Spring of the drum circle that congregates in the park every Sunday [...]
Filed under: uncategorized | Tagged: music, washington dc | 1 Comment »
Mellon Square is a 1.4 acre park in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. The park has an interesting history. Completed in 1955, it was the result of the city’s corporate leaders trying to reinvent the city at a time when it was most associated with pollution and an undesirable quality of life. With threats of [...]
Filed under: renewal | Tagged: downtown | 1 Comment »
Will Rogers pens a piece for Huff Post on balancing preservation and change, citing the story of the MLK National Historic Site in Atlanta, where another piece of the civil rights leader’s childhood street has been preserved. Rogers was in Atlanta recently to celebrate the event: As a group of us stood watching children jumping [...]
Filed under: renewal | Tagged: atlanta, preservation | Leave a Comment »
