Urban Planning

Latest Articles

Save the pool: readers reflect on the Christian Science Center landmark

Letters to the Boston editor, July 23, 2010
Boston has a special place when it comes to the history of modern urban spaces in the United States. It has one of the worst of such spaces — the plaza in front of City Hall — and one of the best, the plaza of the Christian Science Center.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 21, 2010

A turbine grows in Warwick

Windy City
If all goes well, Shalom Housing in Warwick, a division of Jewish Seniors Agency, will be the home of a 100-kilowatt wind turbine, part of new federal “green” stimulus award of up to $1.5 million from the US Housing and Urban Development to retrofit the 30-year-old, 100-unit low-cost senior housing project.
By RICHARD ASINOF | November 04, 2009

Can we fix our broken suburbs?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, wraps up its fall run with a look at the American adventure in suburbia.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 21, 2009

Flaherty's fix for the BRA

Letters to the Boston editor, August 21, 2009
Your recent article regarding the upcoming preliminary election for mayor of Boston, inaccurately portrays my proposal for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the city’s planning and development agency.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 19, 2009

System failure

Letters to the Boston editor, July 3, 2009
In the “Talking Politics” column “Mass betrayal,” you attribute our state’s long, sad history of corrupt politicians to the culture of the State House. You’re probably right.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 01, 2009

Battle over open space in North Providence

Real estate
Will the last large piece of open space in North Providence turn into the site of 47 single family homes? That decision currently rests with the Rhode Island General Assembly and the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The outcome could jeopardize open space preservation statewide.
By STEVEN STYCOS | May 27, 2009

An accidentally tragic timeline

Letters to the Boston editor, December 12, 2008
Your “Terror Masala” article, unintentionally of course, is very timely in view of the atrocities in Mumbai.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | December 10, 2008

Gardner growing pains

Her will be done
Isabella Stewart Gardner’s will is explicit: the experience she choreographed for visitors to her museum must continue in perpetuity.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 19, 2007

Clash on the Providence waterfront

High-stakes battle pits competing visions for key real estate
A specter is haunting the Providence waterfront — the prospect of change.
By IAN DONNIS | October 17, 2007

Stone soul picnic

This article originally appeared in the October 5, 1982 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By D.C. DENISON | October 11, 2007

Saving a sinking waterfront

Redeveloping the Maine State Pier has gone wrong from the beginning — let’s get our priorities back in order
The near-identical proposals to fix up and revitalize the Maine State Pier are in as uninspiring shape as the pier itself.
By DEIRDRE FULTON, CHRISTOPHER GRAY, AND JEFF INGLIS | August 29, 2007

Edifice complex

Tom Menino has already remade Boston’s skyline. Now he wants to pack up City Hall and move it to Southie. Can anyone stop him?
You’re Boston Mayor Tom Menino, preparing to address the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on a chilly morning in December 2006.
By ADAM REILLY | August 02, 2007

Walk the talk

Despite Boston’s pedestrian-friendly reputation, there’s plenty of room for improvement
Boston is billed as America’s premier pedestrian city, but is it really true?
By DAVID EISEN | January 17, 2007

Beautiful disaster

Edward Burtynsky at Tufts, Kara Walker at the Addison, and ‘Works from the Permanent Collection’ at the Rose
What we think of as “progress” — urban development, industrialization — has been proceeding at a rapid rate in China over the past decade, with significant environmental and human consequences.
By RANDI HOPKINS | January 17, 2007

Psychoactive Providence

Provflux III finds treasure in the city’s urban fabric
With activities encompassing parties, outdoor performance art, parades, roundtable discussions, and film screenings, Provflux examines the interface between humans and their cityscape from many different angles.
By BETH SCHWARTZAPFEL | May 24, 2006