New urbanism
Remedial Urbanism: History, Apathy, Old Plan Stunt Westwood Village
Submitted by Robin Andersen on 30 May 2008 - 12:50pmWestwood Village sits in the middle of a rare constellation of commercial districts. To the east lie Prada, Spago and the extravagance of Beverly Hills. To the south, Century City offers a resplendent new multiplex and every imaginable upscale chain store. To the west, Santa Monica’s Promenade ranks as the paragon of L.A. urbanism. Further afield, the ersatz streets of The Grove and CityWalk attract “destination” shoppers from all over the region.
By the unusual standards of West Los Angeles, Westwood Village could be cited for blight. Yet even as other pockets of the Westside become ever more upscale, the city’s new focus on “elegant density” and strategic infill might leave Westwood behind.
Idealistic Planning Meets Real World In Fresno Project
Submitted by Bill Fulton on 7 August 2007 - 3:35pmMathematicians often take delight in Cat’s Cradle, the age-old game of making string figures on one’s fingers. In the most familiar form of this game, one person starts out with a simple rectangle of yarn or string, and then makes a simple figure by looping different parts of the yarn around his or her fingers. This figure is then passed to the fingers of a second player, who introduces another layer of complexity into the figure before passing the increasingly complex string figure to a third player. And so on, until the figure becomes so complex that it becomes impossible to go further, at least with a two-foot length of yarn.