More parents with children are living in downtown Minneapolis neighborhoods, says a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We’ve reported on this trend in places such as Portland, and have made the case that cities need to provide the parks and playgrounds that parents want if they are to have truly diverse neighborhoods from [...]
Filed under: facilities, planning | Tagged: density, downtown, minneapolis | Leave a Comment »
Two different ways to design and program public space: 1) “Street Pianos” are coming to New York, and will be prominently placed in a number of parks. The pianos have been successful in London, São Paulo and other cities. (Village Voice); and 2) from Toronto, color and art comes in the form of painted “nature-inspired [...]
Filed under: uncategorized | Tagged: downtown, new york city, philadelphia, public art, st. louis, washington dc | Leave a Comment »
A new sculpture park on the outskirts of downtown Des Moines is changing the face of this Iowa city. The New York Times ran a story in their Real Estate section on Des Moines, making substantial mention of the park: At the center of the Western Gateway neighborhood is a 4.4-acre public park and sculpture [...]
Filed under: uncategorized | Tagged: des moines, downtown, public art | Leave a Comment »
We couldn’t grab the video, but the link to WTTW (PBS) provides a short video of Maureen Hackett talking about the comeback and operations today in New York’s Bryant Park. The attention to detail described by Hackett is good reason why when you visit the park, there so much to observe.
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: downtown, horticulture | Leave a 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 »
Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh continues to garner national and now international praise. The parking lot-to-park project of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy won a 2009 International Award for Livable Communities (the “LivCom” Awards) this past week in the Czech Republic and last month won the Pinnacle Award from the International Downtown Association. “It has been wonderful [...]
Filed under: international, partnerships, renewal, transportation | Tagged: downtown, parking, pittsburgh | 2 Comments »
Vancouver, Canada is considered a model for infilling with compact, densely populated development. But there is a problem to this. As Regarding Place points out, a map of the distribution of children in the city shows that few of them are in areas that have seen the most concentrated development in the past few decades. [...]
Filed under: planning | Tagged: density, downtown | 3 Comments »
The Boston Globe visited Houston’s Discovery Green wondering why that park is being used so much and its own Rose Kennedy Greenway so little given its high profile location. The article points out that the Greenway has not yet instituted the types of features and programming to bring more people in — there are no [...]
Filed under: facilities, programming | Tagged: boston, downtown, houston | Leave a Comment »
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett unveiled a proposal to increase the local sales tax in that city to pay for $770 million in big downtown improvements from transit to a new $130 million, 70-acre park to entice development. From The Oklahoman: The plan unveiled Thursday by Cornett and council members includes a massive downtown park, [...]
Filed under: economics, funding, planning | Tagged: downtown, oklahoma city | 2 Comments »
ArchNews gives an overview of changes to the Gateway Mall in St. Louis. From an urban planning standpoint, sometimes a garden is not just a garden – especially in St. Louis. City planners see Citygarden, which opens tomorrow, July 1, as the first step in fulfilling a nearly century-old dream in St. Louis – creating [...]
Filed under: facilities, partnerships, uncategorized | Tagged: downtown, st. louis | 3 Comments »
