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Form-Based Codes 101: Corridors
Corridors have historically been a key element of the urban fabric of every American town and city, yet they are also commonly problematic. This course looks at the roots of the problem for examples of how corridors can be designed and coded.
Form-Based Codes 101: Downtowns
Downtowns are the historic center of most American cities. In this course, we will review their role in establishing the past and future character of the city, walking through a series of form-based code case studies across a range of scales and contexts.
Tactical Urbanism: How It's Done
From unsanctioned crosswalks to city-led "Pavement-to-Plaza" programs, instructor Mike Lydon describes the success of short-term, temporary projects in influencing long-term physical and policy changes in cities across the United States and Canada.
Greening the Neighborhood: An Introduction to LEED-ND
This course introduces the LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) system with a review of its goals and major users and the business case for undertaking ND projects. Also learn about rating system prerequisites and credit requirements, the certification process, and technical resources available for assembling successful certification submissions.
Greening the Neighborhood: Accelerating Sustainability with LEED-ND
This course reviews options and resources for local governments to leverage LEED-ND by examining case studies of local experiences and results.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Core Concepts
Learn about the six key elements used throughout the submission preparation process: site type, boundary, buildable land, development program, terminology, and mapping.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Metrics
This course describes approaches for making the LEED-ND calculations that will influence the work of the project team throughout the process.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Globally and v.4 Update
The final course in the "Greening the Neighborhood" series discusses international considerations for LEED-ND and reviews LEED v.4, the first major update to the LEED-ND system since 2009.
Regional Scenario Planning: An Overview
This first of two courses offers a brief history of regional scenario planning in the late 20th century and beyond, with examples from Portland, Oregon's Vision 2040, Salt Lake City's Envision Utah, and the Chicago Metropolis Plan. Principles of regional planning relating to land use, urban design, and transportation are discussed. Finally, more advanced regional planning topics are touched on, including jobs/housing balance, and the relationship between demographics and regional housing market demand.
Tactical Urbanism: An Introduction
Developed in conjunction with other movements, the Tactical Urbanism approach allows a host of local actors to test new concepts before making substantial political and financial commitments. Sometimes sanctioned, sometimes not, Tactical Urbanism features the following five characteristics: phased instigation, meeting local planning challenges, realistic and short term, low risk-high gain, and stakeholder capacity building.
Bicycle-Friendly Streets: Design Standards
"Bike Friendly Streets: Design Standards" presents examples of cities across the United States and globally redesigning their streets to accommodate and encourage bicycling. From road diets that make room for bike lanes to complete redesigns of streets, cities are stepping up to the challenge of providing a variety of options for the bicyclists in their communities.
GIS Walkability Modeling
As the field of planning continues to trend toward multi-modal, sustainable transportation practices, tools to model or analyze the walkability of a given area have grown in number and complexity. In this course, students will learn how to apply ArcMap and the Spatial Analyst extension to model walkability. The course assumes students have a working knowledge of GIS and basic familiarity with Spatial Analyst.
The Human Scale
The Human Scale juxtaposes the urban experiences of cities across the World to raise questions about the costs of modernity and to argue in favor of city planning that reclaims the public realm for social life. This new approach to planning is measured by walking distances, social interactions, and social inclusion, rather than vehicle speeds and parking spaces.
Taken For A Ride
The film argues that automobile manufacturers like General Motors deliberately sabotaged streetcar systems through service reductions and fare increases to pursue a program of motorization on its way to becoming one of the largest companies in the world's history.
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
What makes good public spaces work, and why are some public spaces underused? Over the course of this film, William Whyte details insights into seven basic factors of successful public spaces: suitable space, interaction with the street, the sun, food, water, trees, and, finally, a term Whyte calls triangulation, or the ability of a public space to bring people together.
Lewis Mumford on the City 2: The City - Cars or People?
This short documentary film is the second part of a larger series hosted by Lewis Mumford, an American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and literary critic whose studies in the 20th century included attention to cities and architecture that persists in influence into the present day.
Lewis Mumford on the City 4: The Heart of the City
The "Heart of the City" advocates for the compact, historic centers of cities as places of adventure and culture, which, Mumford warns, are in danger of vanishing. For context and historical perspective, Mumford traces the evolution of cities from the Medieval cities showcased in the third part of the film series, to the Baroque Age, which were shaped by a preoccupation with power and order, and into the 19th century, when commercial forces began to carve up cities in a trend that reached its highest pitch with the massive skyscrapers of the 20th century
The American City, Part 3: Learning from the Grid
This course demonstrates the well-defined formal composition and spatial processes of how American cities evolve over time.
Right of Way: How Racial and Class Disparities Created a Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths
This course presents a panel discussion hosted by the Security and Sustainability Forum and Island Press in September 2020.
Methods for Neighborhood Scale Revitalization
This course presents a rigorous but adaptable methodology that builds on the strengths of neighborhoods to develop customized approaches for addressing challenges that directly respond to the needs and vision of each neighborhood.
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