• Housing in Workshop Neighborhoods

    As more residents work from home—even after Covid-19—neighborhoods will include more variety in housing types and the way they are used. Part 2 in a two-part series.
    “Workshop Neighborhoods” are communities where a high proportion of residents work out of their own homes. They tend to be found in walkable places with a high quality of life. They will be neighborhoods of choice as more workers continue to work at home. In the first article of this 2-part series...Read more

  • Creating livable Workshop Neighborhoods

    As more residents work from home—even after Covid-19—they can choose where they live. Many will pick walkable neighborhoods where many people work out of their own homes.
    If you could live anywhere, where would you live? A sizeable number of Americans are now able to ask themselves a form of that question. Even after the pandemic, according to a recent survey by the Harvard Business School, one in six workers will be working from home or a co-working space at least...Read more

  • How a Manhattan park pioneered Main Street placemaking

    Learning from Bryant Park: Revitalizing Cities, Towns, and Public Spaces, is an entertaining and important book for urbanists across America.
    It may be hard to believe now, but several decades ago Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan was a dangerous place. It was dubbed “needle park” for the drug dealers and their customers who occupied it. Surrounding office towers were plagued by vacancy. After a four-year renovation by the Bryant Park...Read more

  • Former high school becomes entrepreneurial center

    Bok converted an abandoned vocational high school into a beehive of affordable workspace and community activity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The project won a 2020 CNU Charter Award in the Block, Street, and Building category for Scout LTD.
    The magnificent art deco Bok, where Philadelphia high-school students learned a wide variety of trades for nearly eight decades, was a “maker-space” of its time. The former citywide vocational high school was closed in 2013 and sat vacant for two years until Scout LTD purchased the property with a...Read more