• What New Urbanists can learn from The Villages

    We've learned how to design a good block. It's time for new urbanists to focus on the block party, says Fernando Pages Ruiz. The Villages have mastered that aspect of community building.
    Note: Fernando Pages Ruiz and Andres Duany will discuss lessons from the Villages in an On the Park Bench webinar on July 15, at 12 noon ET. The Villages, Florida, is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States. That fact alone should prompt attention from planners. But there’s a...Read more

  • The human side of housing

    The housing supply-demand gap has grown so huge in desirable places that the panic to add more units is overshadowing what should be obvious about human needs goals.
    As an architect, I have spent years working on community-oriented housing projects within the private market. I’ve pursued affordability through smaller home sizes, shared amenities, and simplified construction. Over the past 5 years, however, I’ve seen the market shift. The threshold at which...Read more

  • Social life, not density, makes city dwellers happy

    Culdesac in Tempe, Arizona, has people-friendly courtyards and a walkable design, which leads to success. The formula is explained in Happy City.
    I’ve been reading Charles Montgomery’s Happy City , a 2013 book on how city design impacts life satisfaction. Then I came across recent coverage of Culdesac in Tempe, Arizona, and a light bulb turned on. Culdesac is one of the nation’s most talked-about new developments, because the 17-acre...Read more

  • Fighting loneliness with parks and third places

    We have a unique opportunity to rethink what it means to create shared spaces. By reimagining downtowns, expanding parks, and supporting hybrid third places, we can design environments that heal, connect, and inspire.
    I was struck by a recent essay in Time about the growing epidemic of loneliness in America. It drew a clear correlation between isolation and the decline of real-life social connections, particularly in third places—those informal gathering spaces like coffee shops, libraries, and parks. As someone...Read more