Cities & Planning

A charter city is a special zone with a charter granting significant autonomy from the host country’s regulations. Hong Kong, a succesful Chinese city operating under British law, was one early inspiration. Examples like this fueled criticisms that charter cities were “neo-colonial”. But Charter cities do not inherently require foreign legal frameworks. The fundamental purpose […]

An inside look at the Tallaght District Heating Scheme, where Heat Works is using recycled heat from an AWS data center to warm a community in Dublin, Ireland.

Climate scientist Bill McGuire writes on his conundrum: what’s happening to our planet scares the hell out of him—but if he shouts the unvarnished truth from the rooftops, will that inspire you to act or to give up?

A unique movement combining social justice and wildlife conservation is changing the landscape.

Artificial intelligence, data centers and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America’s aging power grid to the brink. Utilities can’t keep up.

A bill pushed by Bothell Rep. Davina Duerr and approved by the Washington legislature this week would prioritize trees when retention policies come into conflict with local parking mandates.

The city’s first “net-zero” accessory dwelling unit took two years and about $200,000 to build. Its owner learned some valuable lessons along the way.

While Bellevue is projecting 225,000 additional residents by 2045, Seattle is anticipating a more modest 200,000 for its comprehensive planning purposes. In its new draft plan, Seattle adds fourplex zoning across most, but not all of the city, plus 24 "Neighborhood Centers" and one new urban center with more intensive zoning changes.

The Comprehensive Plan update would create new designations to make space for corner stores and 100,000 residential units over 20 years.

One Seattle Plan

The plan gives housing advocates half as much housing as they wanted.

How the problematic romanticization of Western rural life reveals our discontent with the modern world.

For Americans to live a productive, prosperous, happy life, homes need to be truly abundant.

Time lapses of Earth powered by community science.

Evidence shows fossil fuel companies pushed recycling instead of addressing our growing plastic problem

“Dingbat” is a word with many meanings. It’s a synonym for nitwit. In typography, it’s a symbol used in place of a letter. And in Los Angeles, it’s a

Studio E Architects is an award-winning architectural firm based in San Diego, CA

Density Atlas is a resource for comparing densities from around the world

Belgium is in the headlines in today's exciting recycling news. France was the first European country to introduce a reparability index. Essentially, this is a score that indicates how viable…

On Wednesday, Sound Transit hosted an outreach event at Union Station aimed at building consensus and easing tensions in Chinatown. Organizer Brien Chow spoke out to argue the Fourth Avenue station option was being sidelined and shortcomings of the agency's North and South of CID preferred alternative were being papered over.

The “energy transition” depends on massive expansions of our high-voltage transmission grid. But capacity additions are falling, and per-mile costs and utility product costs are soaring.

RapidRide projects soak up resources and take many years to come together. Instead of focusing on a trickle of RapidRide lines, Metro should ramp up bus service and route improvements systemwide with a network approach.

Discover passenger capacities of different modes of transit, including buses & trains. Cities are cautioned against providing too much or too little.

Traditional volume measures fail to account for all the functions of urban streets, as well as the social, cultural, and economic activities served by transit, walking, and bicycling.

Paine Field Airport in Everett could see some notable expansions in the coming years to support increasing demand. Snohomish County, which owns the airport grounds but not the passenger terminal itself, has developed a draft master plan that is pending final approval from the feds and county council. A successful expansion would require far better transit options.