Chapel Hill (PARK)ing Day 2015
In the summer of 2015, undergraduate and graduate students interested in urban planning, design, and architecture participated in a five-week, design-intensive program at UC Berkeley’s College of Environment Design. The program, Design and Innovation for Sustainable Cities (Disc*), aimed to engage students in iterative, design-based solutions in order to reclaim public space for people, and included an underlying emphasis on tactical urbanism. Pursuant to the program’s mission, DISC* … Continue reading Chapel Hill (PARK)ing Day 2015
Not the Only One in the Room
For the past three years, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s (ACSP) diversity organization has hosted a workshop geared towards students of color who are interested in pursuing doctoral studies in planning and related fields. Levels of diversity in planning institutions are dismally low. In order to transform planning discourse, it is essential to change the demographics and perspectives of planning students. I participated in the 2015 workshop, which … Continue reading Not the Only One in the Room
Ravelejar: The Art of Neighborhood Branding (2/4)
Part 2: Constructing the Mythology of Barrio Xino Part 1 of this series (“The Barcelona Model”) was published on this site on September 30, 2015. The neighborhood of El Raval emerged during the Middle Ages due to outward expansion beyond Barcelona’s medieval walls. Tucked next to Barcelona’s port, it first functioned to house transient populations and travellers and was an early site of criminal activity … Continue reading Ravelejar: The Art of Neighborhood Branding (2/4)
Planning, Design, and Architecture for Affordability
Over the summer, design and planning professionals gathered at AIA North Carolina’s Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) to attend an expert panel on the subject of alleviating homelessness through design. The conversation centered around a hypothetical, transitional housing community, that would be located outside of downtown Raleigh. This comes in the wake of the announcement of the finalists for Activate14’s Tiny Home Community Ideas … Continue reading Planning, Design, and Architecture for Affordability
Academic Performance and Physical Activity: A Brief History Lesson
What do we know about the relationship between physical activity and fitness, and academic performance? This brief lesson, drawn from a 2014 article by Castelli and others, provides an overview of how this area of research has evolved and where we are today. Paving the Way Research on psychological benefits of physical activity began in the 1950s and 1960s, with the first large-scale study of … Continue reading Academic Performance and Physical Activity: A Brief History Lesson
North Carolina: The Future of the Clean Energy and Tech Economy
North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, and its surrounding region, have grown exponentially over the last half century. This change is driven by a variety of knowledge-based industries that transformed the region into one of the most productive and innovative in the country. Information technology (IT), telecommunications, biotechnology, medicine, and innovative entrepreneurship have all contributed to local and regional economic growth, aided by a steady flow … Continue reading North Carolina: The Future of the Clean Energy and Tech Economy
Ravelejar: The Art of Neighborhood Branding (1/4)
Part 1: The Barcelona Model Barcelona. To many, the name of this cultural capital conjures up images of beaches, ornate architecture, tapas, and wine. It is a city whose reputation precedes it. While its reputation can be, in part, attributed to the city’s world famous soccer team and representations in popular media1, Barcelona’s ascent to global city status is also the result of innovative urban … Continue reading Ravelejar: The Art of Neighborhood Branding (1/4)
Gulf Coast Communities Mark Ten Years Since Katrina
On August 29, communities across the Gulf Coast stopped to mark the ten-year anniversary of the storm that changed the landscape of Louisiana, Mississippi, and coastal Alabama. President Obama paid the region a visit, acknowledging that “we came to realize that what started out as a natural disaster became a manmade disaster — a failure of government to look out for its own citizens” in … Continue reading Gulf Coast Communities Mark Ten Years Since Katrina
Exploring Downtown Chapel Hill’s Informal Pathways
In this report, authors Aaron Hursey and Melanie Morgan explore the often overlooked ways of getting from here to there. The pair identified and analyzed thirteen informal pathways between Hillsborough Road and Raleigh Road to the East and West, and between the UNC campus and Rosemary Street to the North and South for Professor William Rohe’s Urban Neighborhood Revitalization course. In a report prepared for the … Continue reading Exploring Downtown Chapel Hill’s Informal Pathways
The Potential for Community Design in the Triangle
The Triangle is uniquely positioned to embrace a new model for community design, capitalizing on a rich network of design initiatives and building on its legacy as a center for innovation. Design Community: The Potential for Community Design in the Triangle, the result of research conducted throughout the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015, extends the conversation about the potential of community design to … Continue reading The Potential for Community Design in the Triangle
Carolina Planning Journal 