Category: Urban Planning
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The Idea That Came Around
A freshman design studio professor warned us many times that whatever in-depth design synthesis we went through to invent something original, that we could always find that someone had already come up with it before. Pullman, a neighbourhood on the far south side of Chicago is touted as one of the first ‘planned communities’. It was…
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Cars with Lots of Real Estate
A friend wrote in reply of my 4 July 2009 post “Big People. Little Cars. Tiny Houses. The Scale of our Neighbourhoods”, which spoke of our neighbourhoods being sized around our mode of personal transportation which, in modern day North America, tends to be our cars. To quote Alex: “There are a couple of…
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Traditional Media vs Social Media, and it’s Similarity to Urban vs Suburban Design
The recent passing of Walter Cronkite and the commemoration of the Apollo 11 lunar landing spawned much commentary about how as a culture, we’ve lost not just trusted voice and a collective goal, even the ability to dream. There are many indicators supporting this notion, even some directly related to the design of our cities.…
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Rencontre avec Darrel G. Babuk – Architecte, spécialiste en réseau de transport
Publié le 9 septembre 2006 In english: some time ago, I was recommended to Christophe Loustau, Recipient of the prestgious Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. Christophe’s research project was to document the original New York City – San Francisco transcontinental railway across the United States. I did an amalgamation of many of my usual railway &…
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Deux journées de folie en compagnie de Darrel Babuk
session du 8 au 9 septembre 2006 In English: some time ago, I was recommended to Christophe Loustau, Recipient of the prestgious Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. Christophe’s research project was to document the original New York City – San Francisco transcontinental railway across the United States. I did an amalgamation of many of my usual…
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Big People. Little Cars. Tiny Houses. The Scale of our Neighbourhoods
It was an odd conversation over the July Fourth barbeque. One side started talking about the increasing waistlines of various people. The other side was talking about my Mini, and their new-found interest in Microcars. Then – like a flyswatter hitting a mosquito – the two groups found out about each other. A sort of…
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The Burnham Plan Centennial Opening Events Reception
A reception and concert was held on Friday, June 19 in Chicago to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan for the City of Chicago. These events coincided with the opening of two Millennium Park pavilions that capture the essence of the Burnham Plan of 1909, and marked the start of an entire season…
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Forecasting Global Economic Strategy, Understanding Urban Planning and the 1977 Mini Clubman Estate
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 While I’ve been avoiding the temptation, the removal of General Motors from the Dow Jones Index may provide a good reason to describe my own car, to draw parallels to the direction of this economy, and to the future of urban planning, of all things. Both General Motors and Citi Group…
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Presentation to Fachhochshule am Main Frankfurt and Ryerson University
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Yesterday, I made a presentation of “The Canadian Side of the Chicago School of Architecture 1884 – 1935” to a group of architecture students and faculty visiting Chicago from Fachhochscule Frankfurtam Main of Frankfort, Germany and Ryerson University of Toronto, at their request. It was a group of about fifty people, they…
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Great Chicago Places and Spaces 2009, Part 2
Sunday, May 17, 2009 Great Chicago Places and Spaces took place yesterday. While the overall program was shortened (one day rather than two, 100 presentations instead of more than 200) it was very well attended. All three of my presentations sold out. It was beautiful weather, albeit a bit windy at times. Secret Streets of…