The single most exciting thing my fellow urbanists should look for in 2007 is LEED-ND. LEED for Neighborhood Development could turn the green building movement on its head. The core argument of LEED-ND is that all the environmentally-friendly buildings in the world are only partially effective without considering land use patterns. Therefore, LEED-ND ranks entire neighborhoods based on their level of sustainability, including density, transit accessibility and environmental preservation. LEED-ND is going to be a gut check for urbanists. Will we be able to stomach seven units to the acre? Only half of Americans drive, so will we plan for all neighborhoods to have transit access and…

I’m going to discuss architecture. Two separate occasions this past year confirmed to me something that has been on my mind for some time: the balance between “starchitecture” and a quality public realm.   Peter Calthorpe received the prestigious J.C. Nichols Award at the ULI conference in October. In the course of his acceptance speech and a presentation given earlier in the day, he provided a number of insights about the industry. Most striking was his comment about state of present day architecture. He explained that he was bothered that buildings are either neotraditional in design or “hyper-modern schizsophrenic,” as he put it. Calthorpe explained that we need architecture…

What is your favorite bookstore? I realize in my travels that I tend to happen upon wonderful independent bookstores. I don’t necessarily seek them out, but I do seek out great neighborhoods, and it just so happens that the two often go hand in hand. I recently discovered The King’s English in Salt Lake City. I was actually looking for breakfast and discovered a great little retail street (high on the quaint-o-meter) in a leafy part of the city with a gift shop, a little French restaurant, the ubiquitous Starbuck’s, and a lovely little bookstore. I ventured in and wandered among tightly spaced bookshelves in…