Posts Tagged ‘design’
Playing by the Rules
A short thought for today. I read an article on the Chronicle that I found interesting, titled “Blending Elegance and Fast Food.” Here are the most relevant excerpts: Fast-food restaurants in upscale planned communities such as First Colony, Cinco Ranch and The Woodlands shatter some basic assumptions about retailing. Fast-food chains are used to having [...]
CPT Challenge Results and Editors Choice
Last week we held a quick design challenge, looking for people to showcase their ideas for cable-propelled transit systems in Houston. We were happy to receive five different entries, which I think is about what I’d hoped for given the short time frame and the requirement that entrants create an image of some kind to illustrate the idea. What exceeded my expectations was the quality of the entries! These are all thoughtful submissions, and picking and editor’s choice was harder than I expected. I did say I’d pick a winner, though… read the rest of the story to see who won!
Cable-Propelled Challenge
I got some very insightful feedback on my CPT post from Steven Dale, who runs the Gondola Project – the site that was the source of the flurry of conversations about Gondolas that has been echoing through the Houston blogosphere. But more on that in a minute… Steven also proposed an interesting idea – a [...]
About the new web site design
Returning readers will notice that our web site looks somewhat different today. I’ve made a bunch of changes on the surface. You’ll notice that things look a little crisper, more polished, and overall more readable. Some redundant content has been trimmed out, and the important stuff has been made more prominent. There have been vastly [...]
Discovery Green Thrives while Boston’s Greenway Struggles
A coworker forwarded me this very interesting article comparing Houston’s Discovery Green with Boston’s RFK Greenway. …since Discovery Green opened in spring 2008, people have flocked to the 12-acre park, especially on weekends, when downtown streets feel empty enough for tumbleweeds. It boasts a signature restaurant, a café, an express branch of the public library, [...]
Solving the Ashby Paradox
The Ashby Hi-Rise situation has put the problems with Houston’s development regulations in the spotlight. The way the city does business today offers neither the protections that residents desire, nor the predictability that developers need to do business. If we’re not careful, the backlash from this event could make things even worse. Fortunately, there’s a win-win alternative that can solve this problem and make Houston a better place to live and do business.
A tiny step in the right direction
I was pretty excited to be quoted in the Chronicle two days ago. With regards to the passage of the Transit Corridor Streets ordinance, Mike Snyder reported the following: The changes drew support from real estate organizations including Houstonians for Responsible Growth, which generally resists new development regulation. But others who have followed Houston’s efforts [...]
Peter Brown’s Traffic Plan
I had a chance to look over Peter Brown’s traffic plan this weekend. It’s a pretty good document, and while it doesn’t go into tremendous detail it does clearly spell out his approach to traffic management. Kuffner wrote a great summary last week, so for the general idea take a look at his post. I [...]
Comparing Interfaces: Real Urbanism versus Immitation Urbanism
Today we’re going to take a look at some of the residential infill development that has taken place in Midtown, and see what a difference good interface can make. If you haven’t read the background material on this one, here’s a quick summary. Interface is the connection between public and private space. It’s the street, [...]