Gravel > a short lesson from Munich
(research. work.) For me, every work trip and family vacation becomes a field investigation into how people live and the physical conditions that make their best lives possible – or impossible. This […]
Gravel > this land is your land
(ideas. research. work.) I’m writing a new book called American Land to illustrate how most of our national landscapes are not aligned with our nation’s promise – with the idea […]
ABC > “It won’t really work without it.”
(press.research) In “Charlotte Rail-Trail gives glimpse of Atlanta BeltLine’s potential,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Tyler Wilkins pitches a trip to Charlotte for all the doubters to get a glimpse of what Beltline transit is capable of. The success of their light rail in building a more sustainable future is news […]
Regenerating the Red Zone
(research.) I had the good fortune to be invited to Christchurch, New Zealand to participate in a series of conversations supporting the re-imagination of the city’s residential red zone – […]
City-Stitching with the ERC.
(research.) Deb Eddy came to town in the summer of 2015 just to check out the Atlanta Beltline. By her account she was inspired – and she went home to […]
Mile-High Seventy-Mile High Line Canal.
(research.) It took me a little while to figure out what I was looking at when I took a short trip to Denver and saw the 130-year-old High Line Canal. […]
Loop Network in Baltimore.
(research.) The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy asked me to meet them in Baltimore to share our Atlanta Beltline story. Also inspired by similar projects across the country, RTC and some civic leaders there are looking at a 35-mile loop around the city. Starting right at the Inner Harbor in the heart of […]
Riding the Rickenbacker.
(research.) Bernard Zyscovich told me about his “Plan Z” idea for the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami, so on my next trip, I made a point to tackle it. It’s a […]
Looking at Ludlam.
(research.) Some of the controversy in Miami around real estate development in the railroad that might one day carry the Ludlam Trail reminded me of an early challenge we had on the Atlanta Beltline, but I hadn’t seen it for myself. I finally made it out there on a borrowed […]
Autumn in the Alleghenies.
(research.) We took our kids on an autumn trip to see Fallingwater, the masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright. While we were there, we visited the nearby town of Ohiopyle and […]
A Beerline is My Kind of Artery
(research.) I went to share our story in Milwaukee as part of Newaukee’s YP Week and while I was there, I met with some people working on a reclaimed section of the old “Milwaukee Road” railroad just north of downtown. Roughly half its 1.2-mile length has already been converted into […]
Under the Line
(research.) One of the hottest things in Miami can’t be found in South Beach. Extending south-easterly from Brickell to Coral Gables and South Miami is a 1980s-era elevated transit line. […]
Seamless & Endearing
(research.) Singapore is an island, a city, and a nation all in one. It’s at the southern end of the Malaysian peninsula, and there’s a railroad that crosses a bridge […]
We’ll Just Run it Over Here.
(research.) I’ve been to Austin a few times in the last year or so, and I love exploring the trails around Lady Bird Lake. The coolest part of the 10-mile […]
Bridging More Than a River.
(research.) I was in Washington DC to speak at the Eco-Districts Summit and took some time to ride down to the Washington Navy Yard along the Anacostia River. I wanted […]
Loving Lafitte
(research.) Not only am I from Louisiana and therefore somehow obligated to check in on the Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans, but this project is getting built fast, so I […]
Indy’s Cultural Speedway
(research.) It was a big honor to be sponsored by MailChimp to go to Indianapolis and speak at the third and final We Are City Summit. Between breaks with local popsicles, gourmet fortune cookies, and craft beer, we learned about cool things going on in the world of cities and […]
Electromagnetic Fields
(research.) While visiting Toronto to speak at the 10th World Congress on Design & Health, I felt an electromagnetic pull toward a power transmission corridor outside the central city. Canadians […]
Riding the Railpath
(research.) I joined the bikeshare in Toronto and made a beeline for the first phase of the West Toronto Railpath, a multi-use trail alongside active railroad tracks just west of the center city. It was cool to see commuter trains passing and then discover a new station under construction along […]
Sweet Sugar House
(research.videos.) I was in Salt Lake City to speak at the Public Interest Design Institute and took a couple of hours to check out a section of the old Denver […]
Go River! (the Los Angeles River is sublime).
(research.videos.) The Los Angeles River is spectacular. It’s sublime in the best sense of the word. I got to experience it first-hand for the first time back in the summer […]
Nothing Short of Stunning.
(research.) I got to know Debra Edelson after she moved to Atlanta and was working on the Atlanta Beltline for the Trust for Public Land. In a previous life she worked for CSX as a partner in the effort to build the High Line in New York. In December 2013, […]
A High Line for Every Season.
(research.) One of the many brilliant things about the High Line in New York City is its plant collection. I’ve had the opportunity to experience it several times and I think […]
Bikeshare Shrinks Manhattan.
(research.) I was in New York in October 2013 and tested out CitiBike, the city’s new bikeshare system. It’s easy and convenient, but the most surprising thing was how much smaller it made the city feel. I used it to zip from my hotel to our office at Union Square, […]
Take it to the Embankment.
(research.) When I first heard about the Harsimus Stem Embankment in Jersey City, also known simply as “the Embankment,” it was caught in legal disputes about its ownership. I’m not […]
Ask a Crazy Question…
(research.) …get a crazy answer. Can you make some magic tubes that bring natural sunlight down into an abandoned subway terminal, sufficiently to permit photosynthesis in plants and transform the space […]
Greenway Loop in Tampa.
(research.) After welcoming the 2013 National Brownfields Conference to Atlanta and highlighting our city’s signature brownfields project, Lena Young introduced herself to me. She was excited by its similarity to an idea she has been working on in Tampa called the Green Artery, a 20-mile loop greenway that for over […]
Bridging Public Space.
(research.) Terry Swartz, the director of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, invited me up for a talk about the Atlanta Beltline. While I was there she showed me some amazing […]
Queen of Queens.
(research.) I had been following the QueensWay online but when I had a chance to see it in March of 2013, I was surprised by the variety of its physical […]
Born on the Bayou.
(research.) Houston was born on the bayou – a lucky confluence of water, land, and two determined brothers. The earth in Houston is very flat, making even light rains a […]
Reading Philadelphia.
(research.) I like to talk to people working the ground game on infrastructure projects that seem to be reconnecting communities with their city’s history and spinning off new cultural life […]
Six-Minute Ride on Detroit’s Dequindre Cut.
(research.videos.) The Dequindre Cut Greenway is made from an old railroad that is sunken below street level and runs 1.6 miles from Gratiot Avenue to the Detroit River. The trail […]
Exploring the 606.
(research.) The 3-mile 606 in Chicago was an elevated freight railroad and is now a public greenway. It’s original condition was basically a concrete box filled with earth that used steel and […]
Model in Minneapolis.
(research.) Since the Midtown Greenway is an early conversion of a railroad corridor that has reserved space for a future transit line, we used it a lot in the early days of the Atlanta Beltline’s grassroots effort as our most relevant case study. Crossing below nearly 40 streets as it […]
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