What happens when you pair two designers over a slice of pizza with the back of a pizza box as their blank slate?

The Boston design community gets a new museum to promote local design.

But it won’t look like any other museum.

The nomadic Design Museum Boston will occupy…

How can a city reinvent itself when a big anchor company relocates away from its birth-place?

Eindhoven in the Netherlands is exploring just that question. Work is underway to develop a ‘creative city’ with the aim of bringing new life to the neighborhood.

When The Netherlands’ largest redevelopment…

The Association of Architecture Organizations has posted the audio of a keynote presentation delivered by our President and CEO Carol Coletta for their 2009 AAO Conference.

Visit this site to hear Carol’s talk on issues around architecture and design as a catalyst for change as leaders strive to…

Building on the work of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design to transform communities by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities, the National Endowment for the Arts has announced a new initiative to assist mayors in their design efforts.

The NEA Mayors' Institute on City…

Designers rose to the challenges laid out by city leaders in New York City recently, to propose some new and creative solutions.

GOOD Design NYC I and II, run by our colleagues at GOOD and co-sponsored by CEOs for Cities, celebrated the unique ways that designers can serve…

Have a look at these exciting new designs that aim to revitalize Cleveland’s downtown area by rethinking its main public space, Public Square.

James Corner Field Operations, best known for their work on New York’s High Line Park, has been asked by two local non-profits Parkworks and The Downtown Cleveland…

The Gateway Arch is the subject of a new international design competition that calls the world’s designers and architects to action in service of reframing this iconic monument.

St. Louis’ National Park Service seeks to integrate the magnificent memorial and its grounds with St. Louis, the Mississippi River and Illinois…

Those who met Enrique Penalosa at our national meeting in San Diego last spring know that he is unapologetically pro-urban, pro-pedestrian and anti-car.  We recently ran across a series of videos featuring Enrique's thoughts on a car-free world, investing in public space and cities as a means of achieving equality…

Good news for city leaders looking for different ideas.

According to Marcia Caines, in this blog, the design trend at the recent International DMY Design Festival in Berlin was greater emphasis on “public space, recycling, re-use and open source technologies”, which she sees…

New York Times Magazine tomorrow is all about infrastructure.  The Infrastructurist has the Cliff Notes.

You have to love this idea.  Reconnecting America is staging a 1400-mile rolling salon on the California Zephyr from San Francisco to Denver, site of CNU's annual gathering.  Robert Davis, visionary founder and developer of Seaside, Florida (and all around nice guy), will be a featured host…

Do you know Paju Bookcity?  I didn't until I found Dana Cho's lovely blog, Goodspace, devoted to design and innovation. 

Am I the only one who would think I had died and gone to heaven if I lived in Bookcity?  Ok, maybe it's close to a theme park…

Today's Washington Post has a good analysis of Frank Gehry's latest work, the Princeton Library and the addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. 

Danish architect Jørn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House, died today at the age 90.  The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.  And it does not disappoint in person or up close.  It is a marvel.

Utzon designed the opera house in…

The conversations at the Chicago Humanities Festival are always a pleasure.  Last weekend, I heard Saskia Sassen (she of Global City fame), her husband and author Richard Sennett (power couple extraordinaire), Ricky Burdett of Urban Age and Philip Enquist, SOM partner in charge of Urban Design…

Like all South African cities, Cape Town is a city with a complicated history.  But the city’s natural setting is breathtaking.  Its central district declined along with most other cities, but, under the leadership of Andrew Boraine, Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership and former city manager, it…

That's the theme for this year's Designboost to be held in Malmo October 15-17.  Learn more here.

Yesterday, I visited with Aly Khalifa and his partner Beth (and dog Angus) in their DesignBox offices in Raleigh, NC.  Aly is my new Starfish guru, the man who with colleagues created the open source potluck festival, SparkCon.  Aly explained the concept behind DesignBox.

For more…

Roanoke, VA is putting America’s best designers to work for its city.

Through the Urban Effect 2008 Design Competition, designers are asked to “explore the city's potential by creating unique urban and architectural designs that enhance the best qualities of Roanoke and create positive impact on three…

When the economic development strategy says "grow an industry cluster," some puzzle over how that's really done. Here's one insider's view from the LA Design Scene... "When I got here 10 years ago it seemed particularly slow. Mind you, I wasn't in the 'know' but having dated [ex-girlfriend] for those…

Harriet Tregoning, head of the D.C. Office of Planning shares her insights on ways that cities can begin to think about capturing the Green Dividend.

Suburban Nation co-author and former NEA Design Director Jeff Speck talks about how to achieve the Green Dividend at a recent meeting of CEOs for Cities network partners.  Jeff is an urban planner based in D.C.