Category Archives: Urbanism

NYC DOT Shared Streets: Lower Manhattan THIS SATURDAY

by John Massengale Posted on August 11, 2016

THE NYC DOT’S SHARED STREETS: LOWER MANHATTAN will take place Saturday, August 13  as part of the annual Summer Streets program. Frankly, it looks like the weather will not be good, but the rain will come and go, and this … Continue reading →

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Attempting to answer now and forever the claims of English cyclists that the Amsterdam streets like the one on the cover of “Street Design” are not “shared space” because they are “filtered” or….

by John Massengale Posted on July 15, 2016

Moved to streets-book.com: http://bit.ly/sssettle. Seemingly every time I say something about shared space on Twitter, one or more English cyclists pop up to say “That’s not shared space.” Let’s settle this once and for all, without the character count limits of Twitter … Continue reading →

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Urban Design: The Good Kind & the Other Kind

by John Massengale Posted on May 16, 2016

WE ALL UNDERSTAND why so many normal, rational New Yorkers can act like NIMBYs—because we’ve all seen alien, intrusive development in New York like Billionaire Row and Atlantic Yards. Recent developments at the American Museum of Natural History brought this … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Classical, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Good Kind, New Urbanism, New York, The Other Kind, Urbanism | Comments Off on Urban Design: The Good Kind & the Other Kind

Leon Wieseltier on Modern Cliches

by John Massengale Posted on April 6, 2016

IF you apply for a grant today and want to be successful, you’d better use the words “innovate” and “innovative” in your proposal. In art and architecture, words like “challenging,” “transgressive,” and “disruptive” are among the most used. So I … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Craft, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Global, New York, Quote of the Day, The Other Kind, Urbanism | Tagged | Comments Off on Leon Wieseltier on Modern Cliches

To Stop Pedestrian Deaths NYC Must Change How it Builds Streets

by John Massengale Posted on December 29, 2015

From CITYLIMITS.ORG: November 13th—Friday the 13th—marked the 13th day in a row that a pedestrian died on a New York City Street, all killed by cars or buses going too fast. They were among the 19 pedestrian deaths in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beauty, Current, New Urbanism, New York, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on To Stop Pedestrian Deaths NYC Must Change How it Builds Streets

God is in the details

by John Massengale Posted on December 22, 2015

I’m working on a project in Connecticut where the team is proposing a “Slow Zone” in the center of town. An engineer on a project is a little worried about some of the details I’ve proposed. He wrote, “I think we … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Bicycle, Craft, Culture, Current, Good Kind, Materials, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on God is in the details

Places Where People Want To Walk

by John Massengale Posted on November 4, 2015

: MY COMMENT ON BIKE PORTLAND’s Bike-friendliness and walk-friendliness are actually pretty different, study says I’ve only been to Portland twice, mainly downtown. There was no bike share then, so I’ve never ridden a bike in Portland. In other words, … Continue reading →

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QB Redux: I think that I shall never see…

by John Massengale Posted on August 7, 2015

WHEN I SHOWED A TRANSFORMATION FOR QUEENS BOULEVARD that included trees over the subway beneath the wide street, some people naturally had some doubts about how well the trees would grow. But look at these trees above the similar “cut and … Continue reading →

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The Three Best Entries in the World War I Competition are Classical

by John Massengale Posted on July 28, 2015

THERE’S STILL no resolution to the war in Washington over Frank Gehry’s design for a memorial to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many who love Gehry’s work hate the memorial design,* which the Eisenhower family rejected. But Kansas Senator Bob Dole and … Continue reading →

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My Comment on CityLab: “What’s the Matter With San Francisco?”

by John Massengale Posted on July 24, 2015

POSTSCRIPT: When the highest profits in a market like New York’s come from 1) converting affordable rental housing into housing for sale that buyers use for investment and speculation, and from 2) building housing for the rich and the super-rich, there is … Continue reading →

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Vester Voldgade – Our Street of the Day / A Street Design Supplement*

by John Massengale Posted on July 19, 2015

VESTER VOLDGADE, KØBENHAVN (“West Rampart Street, Copenhagen”) is interesting both for its current condition and and its original state. It’s called “Voldgade” because like the boulevards of Paris, it was built where the old city wall stood (the French word “boulevard” … Continue reading →

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