Austin, Texas is home to a growing list of high-quality urban infill projects, from small examples like Saltillo Lofts to large-scale redevelopments like the Mueller Airport project. Until now, however, there were no examples of how to redevelop aging automobile-oriented commercial corridors. The Airport Boulevard project seeks to change that. In a complex public/private partnership, the city of Austin is working with Fort Worth-based Gateway Planning Group to create a master plan and implementation program for redevelopment of the corridor, including a large underutilized mall and various smaller sized-sites along a three-mile stretch of Airport Boulevard. The roadway was originally…

When it opened in 2010, Walnut Creek Apartments provided 422 apartment units and 35,000 square feet of street-facing retail immediately adjacent to the Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre Station of the BART system, located in Walnut Creek, California, in the bay area east of San Francisco. What isn’t immediately evident when visiting this attractive transit-oriented development is that it is the culmination of a decade of planning that followed several proposed projects that were rejected by the public prior to that. The key to achieving this successful transit-oriented development (TOD) was the facilitation of an intensive charrette process, followed by the…

There certainly has been a lot in the media lately about demand for urban living. Everywhere you look there is a study indicating cities are in demand and suburbs are on the outs. It may already be happening – according to the Brookings Institution, cities are “thriving” and suburbs are “sputtering.”. Long range demographic analysis shows that demand increasing. So if the long range forecasts are true and the American Community Survey (ACS) results are more than just a blip, then urbanists like you and I should be giddy. So why am I so gloomy? Articles in the Minneapolis Star…

A recent post about multi-way boulevards by our friends at Placemakers got me thinking about Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis (I think about it a lot, especially when I’m attempting to cross it on my bike with my kids in tow, one on the tagalong and one in the Burley). As I wait for the light and watch the commuter refugees get off the train and try to cross Hiawatha, I think “there must be a better way.” So what about a multi-way boulevard? The multi-way boulevard is like Superman compared to the standard suburban arterial that we’ll call Lex Luthor.…

The time has come, the time is now. Ellis you are an urban man. For today, my son, you turn six years old. You have grown up in the city and now is the time for you to fly. You see, our local transit system, Metro Transit, allows you to ride the trains and buses for free from age zero to five. Now now that you are six, it is time to start paying for your rides. Yes, for your sixth birthday, you are getting your very own transit card, and with it, the keys to the city! It will…

What good is placing a building close to the sidewalk when this is what a pedestrian has to look at? This is what I’m trying to avoid repeating in my neighborhood right now. The photo above shows an existing recently-built assisted living facility, and there is currently another unrelated assisted living facility proposed elsewhere in my neighborhood. The problem with mixing assisted living with urbanity is that assisted living by nature is a single-entrance, secure operating model. Many residents are monitored for their safety and multiple exits are more difficult to monitor. These facilities are fine in a classic suburban…

My beloved hometown of Minneapolis is vastly cooler now than it was just a week ago, a year ago, definitely more than two years ago. Why? Two things – Food Carts and Open Streets. Urbanites are letting their actions demonstrate their desire to be in the public realm, enjoy the public realm, be urban – and have a good meal to boot! First, food carts. They are popping up all over downtown, and elsewhere. They line Marquette Avenue, and out come the crowds to the sidewalks (the publci realm) where nobody but smokers used to hang out. I guarantee the…

A small apartment building just opened on my street, and I’m proud to say it has the stamp of Joe Urban on it. Station 38 Apartments opened in early April, right around the corner from the 38th Street light rail station. It has 64 market rate apartments leasing for around $1.45 per square foot, is four stories in height and I’m happy to say it has ground floor units with individual walk-out entrances. Close to two years ago the developer, Klodt (pronounced “kloot”), presented their nearly final plans for the building to SENA, my neighborhood group. Citing the fact that…

A common misconception is form-based codes are used primarily to improve the look and aesthetic feel of places. The Friday session at CNU 20 entitled “Form-Based Economic Development on Main Street” was eye-opening as to just how compelling the argument is that form-based codes are also a tool to create economic value. Scott Polikov, president of Gateway Planning, and Monte Anderson, a broker and developer in the Dallas area, presented a case study on a project they are working together on to revitalize an aging commercial corridor in Duncanville, Texas, a southern suburb of Dallas. Over a decade ago, Monte…

A number of grocery store concepts are taking advantage of opportunities in urban infill locations, turning the conventional idea of a full-service grocery store fronted by a sea of parking on its head. At Friday’s CNU 20 session “Designing and Developing Walkable Urban Grocery Stores,” we learned that across the United States, grocery stores, many covering a fairly substantial footprint, are being wedged in to and amongst other uses, adding value to their surrounding community. I’ve been covering urban grocery stores for some time, including this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at…