• Is Devon Energy going into the luxury hotel business?
  A worldwide architectural firm with offices in Los Angeles (Morris is behind the under-construction Anaheim GardenWalk Hotel) recently won the top prize in a hospitality design design contest for their award-winning "Oil Rig Resort, Spa, and Aquatic Adventure," a design concept that transforms your standard Gulf Coast oil rig into an sustainable resort.
  (tags: oil.and.gas sustainability rendering)
• Mayor Cornett on Bloomberg
  Nobody is better on television than Mick – a great spokesman for OKC! And he tells it like it is…we have to do better on transit. Glad to know we are addressing the problem.
  (tags: mayor.cornett oklahoma.city okc oklahoma)
• Obama plots huge railroad expansion – David Rogers – Politico.com
  The $787.2 billion economic recovery bill — to be signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday — dedicates $8 billion to high-speed rail, most of which was added in the final closed-door bargaining at the instigation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

  Just last October, former President George W. Bush signed a bill authorizing up to $1.5 billion for high-speed rail through 2013. Obama’s commitment in the same period will be eight times that.

  (tags: rail trainsit obama stimulus transportation)
• Mayor Cornett Weighs in on Obama's Urban Policy
  Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, head of a group called Republican Mayors and Local Officials, says that “in terms of policy, the Bush administration was not friendly to cities.” He says there’s a chance Obama will deliver because of Daley.

  “If I was going to put one person in a president’s life and say listen to this guy, it would be Mayor Daley,” Cornett says. ”So the fact that he comes from Chicago gives me great hope.”

  (tags: mayor.cornett)

Got some great news yesterday and wanted to share it with you.  We are one of four finalist teams that have made it through to round two of the 2009 ULI Hines Urban Design competition. Which means we will travel to Denver in April to compete for a shot at the $50,000 first prize.  Really excited and look forward to working some more on this project. Also, now that the results of round one have been announced, I can share with you everything we worked on.  And I am sure to say we, as it was definitely a team effort.

THE TEAM

Sarah Snider, Master of City Planning / MIT
Eric Komppa, MBA / University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jesse Hunting, Master of City Planning / MIT
Duncan McIlvaine, M.Arch / MIT
Blair Humphreys, Master of City Planning / MIT

ABOUT THE PROJECT

This is our complete design board.  The board measures 51″ x 22″ – or six 17″ x 11″ sheets.  In addition to this we were required to turn in two separate 17″ x 11″ sheets, one with financials and one “day in the life of” sheet conveying life in the year 2050 (click here to see it).  I have chopped up the board pictured above into separate images to fit on your screen below.  The proposal is for an approx. 80 acre site surrounding Denver’s Alameda light rail station.  The northern portion of the site is currently a fairly typical big box retail layout, while the southern portion has a range of tenants connected to the Denver Design District. The primary challenge was to redesign the site to take advantage of the light rail station without displacing any of the existing tenants.  The boards are meant to be self-explanatory (i.e. we weren’t present when the judges viewed them), so I haven’t provided any commentary but if you have questions, just let me know.  Thanks!

note: this post is image heavy so it may load a bit slow.

• Daniel Sperling: A Billion Cars And Counting : NPR
  Daniel Sperling estimates that the world's car population — which currently stands at one billion vehicles — is likely to double in the next 20 years.
  (tags: sustainability transportation transit)
• "Abort Obama" sign confiscated by police
  The police officers who stopped Oklahoma City motorist Chip Harrison and confiscated a sign from his car told him he has a right to his beliefs, but the Secret Service "could construe this as a threat against President Obama," according to the incident report released this morning.

  The sign, which read "Abort Obama Not the Unborn," was returned to Harrison later that day, the report said.

  (tags: odd)
• Houston Set for Major Expansion of Light Rail Network
  After two years of negotiations with two firms, the Metropolitan Transit Authority may be close to reaching a deal with a contractor to build and operate its next four light rail lines.
  (tags: light.rail transit)
• Cafe Evoke Catering: A Thought Over Coffee
  The Plaza District welcomes some new businesses!
  (tags: plaza.district okc oklahoma.city coffee)

“If we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be – community-building places, attractive for all people – then we will have successfully designed about one-third of the city directly and will have had an immense impact on the rest.“

- Allan Jacobs

• Las Vegas Sags as Conventions Cancel – NYTimes.com
  A rash of conference cancellations, and a presidential admonishment peppered with a Las Vegas reference last week, has unnerved politicians and resort executives who are fearful that the all-important convention industry could be on the verge of collapse.
  (tags: convention.center tourism maps3)
• Citiwire.net » Bike Boulevards: Social, Healthy, Economic
  “Bicycling has immediate and direct benefits for communities that invest in bicycle paths, bike lanes, trails, and secure bicycle parking[...]. Bicycle and pedestrian paths are precisely the kind of infrastructure projects our country needs. These projects tend to be the most ’shovel-ready’ and are more labor-intensive than other projects– therefore putting more people to work per dollar spent.”
  (tags: bicycling bikability bike.lanes)

VIDEO

SITE LAYOUT

Pioneer Courthouse Square is rated as one of the top public spaces in the country by both the Project for Public Spaces and the American Planning Association.



URBAN CONTEXT

The Square is located just northeast of the heart of downtown Portland, in close proximity to much of Portland’s downtown retail.

PIONEER COURTHOUSE

The beautiful courthouse is just over 50,000 square feet in size. It was first completed circa 1875, and is listed as a National Register of Historic Places Landmark Structure. Its stately presence frames in the square, while in return, the open space contributes to the courthouse’s visual prominence.



VISITOR’S INFORMATION CENTER

A visitor’s information center is built right into the side of the square and surrounded by a large water feature.



“PORTLAND’S LIVING ROOM”

Providing not only a great destination, but also the perfect place to stroll while passing through

Whether you are catching a concert, eating lunch, or just people watching; the space’s flexible design provides plenty of seating.

The layout provides an excellent space for community festivals, performances, and movie nights!

The Square is considered the nerve center of downtown Portland—with some 26,000 residents, workers, and tourists interacting with it daily. And holds as many as 191 events in a single year!



MAX Light Rail

Pioneer Courthouse Square’s success was in many ways buoyed by a partnership with the local transit authority. Planned concurrently with the MAX light rail system, the Square functions as a vibrant transit hub.



HISTORY

The Square sits on a site that was once occupied by the “glorious Portland Hotel”, but that building was torn-down in 1951 to make way for a new surface parking lot. Pioneer Courthouse Square was officially opened on April 6, 1984 after years of planning and fundraising – including the sale of thousands of personalized bricks with which the Square was ultimately constructed.

sources:

• Portland Spaces: Pioneer Courthouse Square
• The Project for Public Space: Pioneer Courthouse Square

FEEDBACK

What do you think? Would people in Oklahoma City use a public space like Pioneer Courthouse Square? Do you think we already have a downtown public space of this caliber? If we did try to build such a space, where should it go? What should it be near? Could it be built alongside the transit being considered for Maps3?

• Walk 21 – New York Conference
  “We aim to make Walk21 2009 an inspiring and powerful global gathering of the best urban planners, leaders and visionaries, and a major contribution to the worldwide effort to achieve sustainable cities for people,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Transportation Commissioner.
  (tags: walk21 nycDOT walkability sadik-khan)
• Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly – A hand picked TV channel
  Dubai threatens to become an instant ruin, an emblematic hybrid of the worst of both the West and the Middle-East and a dangerous totem for those who would mistakenly interpret this as the de facto product of a secular driven culture.
  (tags: imagi economy video)
• Op-Ed Columnist – I Dream of Denver – NYTimes.com
  The Pew Research Center just finished a study about where Americans would like to live and what sort of lifestyle they would like to have. The first thing they found is that even in dark times, Americans are still looking over the next horizon. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would rather live in a different type of community from the one they are living in at present.
  (tags: suburbs demographics urbanization denver)
• The Argument Against Twitter
  "…But let me spend time in a downtown coffee shop and I’m guaranteed to meet interesting new people and hear about the latest developments and scoops. Let me spend time mixing with business leaders and shop owners and I’ll get a better understanding of what’s going on in today’s economy than through twitter and online social networking."
  (tags: okccentral social.networks)
• :: Urban Squares :: City Squares :: Town Squares ::
  (tags: parks open.space planning urban.design urban.square imagi)

If you aren’t already using del.icio.us to keep track of your bookmarks, I would really encourage you to start. It is incredibly functional, especially when used as an add-on to your browser (I use Firefox) which enables the “tag” button in your toolbar.

One cool feature I just recently discovered is the ability to blog your tagged links in the form of a daily digest (see below). I frequently come across sites that I think are interesting and I want to share, but they don’t always necessarily deserve a dedicated post.  Well, hopefully this will provide a happy medium.

By the way, if you ever come across anything on the web that you think is interesting and related to the topics we discuss – email me or add a comment under the daily links.  Thanks!

• Transit Humor
  (tags: imagi transit comics)
• Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
  Small details add up to great places.
  (tags: imagi public.space urban.square)
• Streetsblog » Streetfilms: The New Madison Square
  (tags: public.space streetfilms imagi)
• From Del.icio.us to WordPress: How to automatically post daily links at theory.isthereason
  (tags: imagi)
• del.icio.us daily blog post fixer plugin – Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings
  (tags: website blogging)

—

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The town’s new pedestrian monkey bars…

me: …not only improved pedestrian connectivity, but have inspired downtown companies to give employees recess!

you: ?

What do you got?  Come on, make us laugh.