Urban 2

Permeability

The degree to which an area allows for movement through a connected network of streets and paths.

Legibility

The ease with which a city's layout can be understood and navigated.

Third Places

Social environments separate from home ('first place') and the workplace ('second place').

Mixed-Uses

The integration of different land uses within the same neighborhood or building.

Adaptive Reuse

Repurposing old buildings for new functions instead of demolishing them.

Organic Urban Development

Unplanned, incremental city growth over time.

Sense of Place

The unique character and emotional attachment associated with a location.

Urban Sprawl

The uncontrolled, low-density, car-dependent expansion of cities.

Impervious Surfaces

Human-made surfaces that prevent water from soaking into the ground.

Folded Map Project

A project connecting residents of similar addresses on different sides of a city.

Shrinking Cities

Urban areas experiencing significant population loss and economic decline.

Housing Wage

The hourly wage needed to afford a modest rental without spending over 30% of income.

Food Insecurity

The state of lacking reliable access to sufficient affordable, nutritious food.

Gendered Cities

The concept that city planning often ignores women's needs and safety.

Social Isolation / Loneliness

A lack of social connections and feeling disconnected from community.

Climate Change

Long-term shifts in global weather patterns, largely driven by human activity.

Killer Heat

Extreme and potentially deadly heat waves, worsened by the urban heat island effect.

Half Earth

A conservation proposal to protect half of the Earth's land and sea for biodiversity.

Spanish Laws of the Indies

16th-century Spanish regulations dictating the layout of new colonial towns.

1899 Building Height Act

A federal law that restricted building heights in Washington, D.C.

Dumbbell Tenements

A type of urban apartment building with a narrow, 'dumbbell' shape.

Central Park

A famous designed urban park by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.

Hull House

A settlement house in Chicago providing services to immigrant communities.

City Beautiful Movement

An early 20th-century movement advocating for beautification and grand civic design.

Ebenezer Howard

A planner who proposed the 'Garden City' model of self-contained communities.

Clarence Perry

A planner who defined the 'Neighborhood Unit' model.

The Equitable Building

A NYC skyscraper whose scale and shadow prompted zoning reform.

1916 Zoning Resolution

The first comprehensive zoning code in the United States.

Air Rights

The legal ability to use or control the airspace above a property.

Greenbelt, Maryland

One of the first 'Greenbelt Towns' built during the New Deal.

Levittown

A post-WWII mass-produced suburban development.

Restrictive Covenants

Clauses in property deeds prohibiting sale or occupancy based on race.

Redlining and the HOLC

The discriminatory practice of denying services based on neighborhood racial composition.

Interstate Highway Act of 1956

A federal law funding the construction of the Interstate Highway System.

Urban Renewal

A mid-20th-century policy of clearing 'blighted' urban neighborhoods.

Jane Jacobs

An activist and author who championed community-based planning.

Robert Moses

A powerful New York City official who shaped the region through public works.

Pruitt Igoe

A large public housing complex that became a symbol of failed urban renewal policies.

Density

Density is a measure of people/units per area.

Barcelona's Superblocks

An urban model where through-traffic is restricted to the perimeter of multi-block areas.

The High Line

An elevated former freight rail line in NYC transformed into a linear park.

Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)

A zoning tool allowing landowners to sell development rights from one property to another.

Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs)

A regulatory line to contain urban expansion and protect rural land.

Upzoning

Changing zoning laws to allow for greater density or more uses.

Infill Development

Building on vacant or underused parcels within existing urban areas.

Brownfields, Greyfields, and Greenfields

Brownfields: Contaminated industrial sites. Greyfields: Underused shopping centers. Greenfields: Undeveloped land.

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

Small, independent residential units on the same lot as a single-family home.

15-Minute City

An urban concept where daily needs are within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

Form-Based Codes

A method of regulating development to achieve a specific physical form.

Inclusionary Housing Requirements

Policies requiring a percentage of affordable units in new market-rate developments.

Missing Middle Housing

A range of multi-unit housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes.

Community Land Trust

A non-profit that holds land in trust to provide permanent affordable housing.

New Urbanism

A planning movement promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.

High Cost of Free Parking

The concept that 'free' parking has significant hidden economic, social, and environmental costs.

Complete Streets

A policy and design approach where streets are safe for all users.

Road Diet

Reconfiguring a roadway to reduce travel lanes and reallocate space.

Woonerf

A Dutch 'living street' where cars, cyclists, and pedestrians share the same surface.

Tactical Urbanism

A low-cost, temporary approach to testing changes to the built environment.

Parklets

A small public space created by converting curbside parking spots.

Last Mile Problem

The challenge of connecting people from a transit stop to their final destination.

Social Infrastructure

The physical places and organizations that shape social interaction.

William 'Holly' Whyte

An urbanist who studied how people use public spaces.

Biophilia

The hypothesis that humans have an innate connection to nature.

3-30-300 Rule

An urban forestry rule: see 3 trees from home, 30% neighborhood canopy, a park within 300m.

Stream Daylighting

The practice of uncovering a buried stream and restoring it to a surface channel.

Bioretention and Rain Gardens

Landscaped depressions designed to capture and filter stormwater runoff.

Kampung Admiralty

A high-rise integrated public development.

Walking School Bus / Bike Bus

A group of children walking or biking to school along a set route with adult supervision.

Home GR/OWN

A program that transforms city-owned vacant lots into community gardens and farms.

Rotterdam's Water Plazas

Public plazas designed to temporarily hold stormwater during heavy rains.

Acoma Pueblo

An ancient Pueblo settlement in New Mexico, continuously inhabited for over a millennium.

Cahokia

A pre-Columbian Native American city near present-day St. Louis.

Monacan Indian Nation

A Native American tribe historically located in Virginia's Piedmont region.

Zuni Waffle Gardens

A traditional Zuni method of gardening using small, sunken beds to conserve water.

Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan

Teotihuacan: A massive ancient Mesoamerican city in Mexico. Tenochtitlan: The capital of the Aztec Empire.

Monte Albán

A large pre-Columbian archaeological site and the former capital of the Zapotec civilization.

Thirteen Towers at Chankillo

An ancient solar observatory in Peru.

Hull House Maps

Groundbreaking social maps created by Jane Addams and colleagues.

Radburn, NJ

An early planned community (1929) known for its 'superblock' layout.

Vinegar Hill

A historically Black neighborhood in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Border Vacuums

A term coined by Jane Jacobs for large, single-use zones that create dead edges.

San Francisco Slow Streets

A program that limits through-traffic on certain residential streets.

Janette Sadik-Khan

A former NYC transportation commissioner.

11th Street Bridge Park

A project to convert an old freeway bridge into an elevated park.

Portland, OR

A city renowned for its urban growth boundary and progressive land-use planning.

Copenhagen, Denmark

A global leader in bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian-oriented urban design.

Freiburg, Germany

A city known for its strong environmental policies and the Vauban district.

The 100 Year Life

The concept that people are living longer, requiring cities and housing to adapt.

Quinta Monroy (Alejandro Aravena)

A social housing project in Chile famous for its 'half-a-house' design.

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)

Neighborhoods or buildings with a high concentration of elderly residents.

Beacon Hill Village

A pioneering nonprofit model where members pay dues to access services.

Denver Affordable Housing Revolving Fund

A city fund that provides loans and grants to support affordable housing.

NYC's 'City of Yes'

A comprehensive zoning reform initiative in New York City.

Cheonggyecheon River (Seoul)

A major urban restoration project that removed an elevated highway and uncovered a buried stream.

Ciclovía (Bogotá)

A weekly event where city streets are closed to cars and opened for cyclists and pedestrians.

Bryant Park

A successful public park in Midtown Manhattan.

Atlanta's BeltLine

A massive project transforming a 22-mile railroad corridor into a multi-use trail and transit loop.