Cities & Planning

A region that's long felt left behind has the assets to surge ahead. Others must realize it and get onboard.

The cost of solar panels is plummeting, and this will flood the power grid with cheap electricity. But that’s just Act 1. We won’t stop building solar at the limits of the grid - we’ll build a lot more. This post explains why we'll keep building more,

When water buffalo make a home for themselves in abandoned spaces, they can bring with them a rich array of frogs, bats and plant life.

There is no set of operating instructions for a regenerative business because so few companies are doing it

If you follow the world of clean energy, you will probably have read all about the so-called hydrogen future and the hydrogen economy. The gas can easily be made from water by electrolysis from gre…

Additive manufacturing (AM) has been getting a lot of attention over the years, with its use in construction a recurring theme. Generally this brings to mind massive 3D printers that are carted to …

We really enjoyed our work, in collaboration with Aecom, on the new bus planning document for Northern Ireland public transport operator Translink.*  It aims to inform future policies, strategies and plans with respect to land use and transport planning.  It’s called Bus Better Connected.  The short and graphically rich report can be downloaded here. Our […]

Things are likely to remain volatile and unpredictable. And that’s okay.

# Lynnwood Link opened on Friday and the excitement was high among riders and dignitaries, alike.

When you make something easy to use, people want to do it more.

Half a century ago, an obscure state senator fought to ban gas-powered cars — and almost won.

Since 2014, solar capacity at K-12 schools has more than quadrupled across the US, according to a new report from Generation180.

Liberalizing Cities from The Ground Up

The National Zoning Atlas a collaborative of researchers digitizing, demystifying, & democratizing ~30,000 U.S. zoning codes.

The I-5 corridor was a politically simpler, cheaper choice. But there's a little more to the story of what made Aurora the road not taken by Sound Transit.

Convenience stores are a part of the country’s culture, meaning that the foreign buyout bid for 7-Eleven, the largest chain, could be a hard sell in Japan.

Economist Tyler Cowen argues the answer is "yes." But much depends on what kind of mobility we're talking about.

There are railroad cars and then there are railroad cars.

Drive along nearly any major road in the United States and it won’t be long before you see evidence of the electrical grid. Whether it’s wooden poles strung along the right of way or a …

Internet for Every Portlander

California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, has called for California to build 3.5 million new homes in the next five years as part of a…

Recently I was talking to some housing activists about how buildings with flat roofs are perceived to be taller, even when they’re not. I…

Vacant homes are a waste of resources and an insult to those lacking housing.

Missing middle housing — fourplexes, townhouses, etc — is great for most places. However, in places like Palo Alto, where land is north of…

The housing crisis isn’t just a big city problem. Rural areas also don’t have enough homes — for example, California’s Imperial County has…

The debate over who pays for the cost of running the electric grid in a world of more rooftop solar (Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez’s…

In many North American cities, as more housing is built, it’s limited to a few places: downtown and along busy streets. This is known as…