Santana Row, located in San Jose, California, is one of many Lifestyle Centers cropping up around the country. Parading themselves as a Main Street from a bygone era, these new retail centers hope to recreate what was lost in the rush to cover America with large malls from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Santana Row
Meet the indoor shopping mall’s hipper, “New Urbanist” cousin.
Mixed-income developments replace Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Homes: Old Town Village West townhouses rise in front of the last remaining towers (since demolished) in this 2009 photograph.
Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
For decades, public housing stood as the most architecturally visible and politically stigmatized reminder of urban poverty in many American cities. Originally built to accommodate an upwardly mobile segment…
Some rat, possum and mozzie species thrive when living close to people.
Mark Philpott/Flickr
Our world is becoming increasingly urbanised. In 1950, just 30% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This number is now over 50% and rising. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population are…
London has more than 40 “ghost” underground stations that are awaiting a new function. Now, Transport for London is inviting companies to submit bids to transform them. But is this a good idea and does…
The undercroft is still open for business.
more_pi-dah
A year-and-a-half after the Southbank Centre published its plans for the redeveloped Festival Wing that would have removed the skaters from their habitual haunt in the building’s undercroft, the plans…
Sport at the centre of Medellín’s regeneration.
Atanasio Girardot
The Colombian city of Medellín doesn’t have the best reputation. Crime, violence, drug cartels and murder are all characteristics that spring to mind. Perhaps most famous for its two Escobars, Pablo the…
Fast-growing Tehran is at the heart of the economic and demographic pressures for change in Iran.
EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh
Iran is involved in P5+1 talks with the US and Europe ostensibly about nuclear capacities. But the real talk in Iran and around the world is that Iran’s government knows things have to change. As Egypt…
Cabo Pulmo, in its current, concrete-free incarnation.
Alan Harper
When former Mexican president Felipe Calderon shut down the development of a planned US$2 billion, 4,000 hectare hotel mega-resort in 2012, it looked as though the extraordinary diversity of the Cabo Pulmo…
Thousands of bodies remain buried under Melbourne’s Queen Vic Market carpark.
Koppenbadger
As a general rule, one place you really don’t want to find yourself is in-between a Melburnian and a piece of real estate. But one group of long-term city residents has been getting in the way of developers…
London’s Olympic Velodrome is opening to the public for the first time. The scene of great triumph for Team GB in the London 2012 Olympics, it should welcome droves of budding cyclists who hope to one…
This green roof demonstration has 14 different combinations of substrate, depth, plant type and irrigation.
John Rayner, University of Melbourne
As the demand for greener and cooler cities increases, new “green infrastructure” technologies, such as green roofs and walls, are coming to the fore. But what are they? Put simply, green roofs and walls…
Save Albert Park unsuccessfully campaigned to relocate the Grand Prix to a permanent track.
AAP/David Crosling
From Thursday through Sunday this week the Australian Grand Prix will take over Melbourne’s Albert Park, bringing with it the glamour of fast cars, grid girls and Formula One drivers Raikkonen, Alonso…
Arts precincts have a tendency to become an arts ghetto, shut off from the broader community.
PreciousBytes
Melburnians are oft to claim that they reside in the “arts capital” of Australia. Such self-perception (justified or not) reflects and helps to elevate the profile, quality and ambition of artistic activity…
State government attempts to redirect development from urban fringes to established urban areas have failed. New deregulated planning systems, not strategic metropolitan plans, are driving development…
Green and gone: Perth’s Burswood Park Golf Course is about to make way for a football and casino complex.
Moondyne/Wikimedia Commons
Australia’s major cities routinely rank among the world’s most liveable. But for all our clean streets, good healthcare and educational opportunities, one of the things we have to contend with is our sweltering…
The vision for a “Global Sydney” overshadows the need for affordable housing in the city.
James Morgan/AAP
The forecast is grim for housing affordability in Sydney, according to a recent government briefing paper. In the last decade median rent for all properties in the inner ring of Sydney more than doubled…
Melbourne is facing more frequent hot days in the future.
Wikimedia Commons
As Melbourne labours through its second heatwave this month, it is becoming clear that these events take a heavy toll. Health, energy consumption, transport, infrastructure, agriculture and other natural…
The music venue Night and Day in Manchester is threatened following complaints from residents living nearby about noise. They suggested pictures fell from walls because the bass was so loud". The venue…
Advert for a bus company, Tineghir, southern Morocco
Hein de Haas
Why do people migrate? At first glance it seems reasonable to assume that most people move hoping to find better conditions or opportunities elsewhere, such as jobs, higher wages, safety or freedom of…
PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney