StructureHub

Thanks to the efforts of a few groups and many volunteers, Detroit just completed what is surely a prerequisite to crafting a coherent plan of urban rejuvenation: it took an inventory.  Specifically, volunteers combed Detroit’s streets to determine and document the condition of Detroit’s nearly 350,000 residential parcels (not including buildings w/ more than 4 [...]

Here is Part III in our 7-part series on architectural renaissance-ready American cities.  Previous entries: Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan.
It would be easy to discuss the city of New Orleans without reference to its history prior to 2005; after all, it’s streets were so thoroughly soaked from just three days of water, wind, and [...]

Here is Part II in our 7-part series on architectural renaissance-ready American cities.  Our last entry: Buffalo, New York.
Reputations, good and bad, tend to lag reality.  Except in Detroit.  For years, Detroit was like Buffalo, which I wrote about last week; its bad reputation fit the reality on the ground, due to abandoned homes, crumbling towers, and [...]

Yesterday’s extermination of the Detroit Lions’ at the hands of the Green Bay Packers handily echoed the recent travails of the Silverdome (I’d call it the Thanksgiving Day Massacre if the Lions hadn’t been pummeled on that day so many times before).
Just as the Lions established a 7-0 lead, only to lose it and their [...]

A while back, I linked to a New York Times article about Flint, Michigan’s nascent foray into calculated “un-development” - which involves tearing down abandoned homes, removing the remains of public infrastructure, and returning the newly-emptied neighborhoods to nature.
Alone, un-development would do wonders for Flint; fewer abandoned/isolated homes would mean fewer “hotbeds” of crime, fewer [...]

As the New York Times recently reported, cities are beginning to consider other approaches to revitalizing neighborhoods in economically-distressed areas.
The strategy of shrinking the city’s phyiscal footprint makes a great deal of sense, really.  With the exodus of people out of cities like Flint, Detroit, and Buffalo, it is simply impossible to redevelop and maintain [...]