The video of last night’s opening presentation for Design Northampton Week is now ready to view. It’s 2 hours and 11 minutes long. Notre Dame Professor Philip Bess defines terms like space and anti-space, then offers his vision of good urban design, plus a way to look at zoning based on density (transect-based zoning). Poorly-built […]
Continue reading Video: Design Northampton Week Opening Presentation
Professor Philip Bess of Notre Dame gave the opening presentation of Design Northampton Week this evening to an intent crowd at Northampton’s Senior Center. The presentation lasted a little over two hours. We’ll do our best to make our video of the event available within a day or two. This handout provided by Notre Dame […]
Continue reading Design Northampton Week: Full Schedule and Handout from Opening Presentation
Design Northampton Week kicks off today with a 7-9pm public presentation by Professor Philip Bess of the University of Notre Dame. This will take place at the Northampton Senior Center on Conz Street. The final presentation and feedback session will take place from 4-6pm on Saturday, September 13, also at the Senior Center. In between, […]
Continue reading Public Input Hours and Presentations at Design Northampton Week
Rutherford Platt is Emeritus Professor of Geography at UMass Amherst. We have cited on several occasions his concept of The Humane Metropolis. In Saturday’s Gazette, Dr. Platt cautions about the hazards of overplanning a city: The ‘humane micropolis’…Urban adaptation cannot be imposed from above through preconceived plans. Instead, it depends upon the resourcefulness of local […]
Continue reading Rutherford Platt in Gazette: Avoid Overplanning
It’s our pleasure to publicize this appeal… Furnishings needed: The Friends of Hampshire County Homeless Individuals purchased a duplex this summer consisting of two apartments to serve as permanent residence for six formerly homeless people. The purchase was made possible by a generous grant from the Community Preservation Committee. Residents will be provided with supportive […]
Continue reading Residence for Homeless Seeks Donations of Furnishings and Household Goods
Debates about infill and urban land use have lately become hot topics, spurred by the Sustainable Northampton Plan and the prospective Hilton Garden Inn. Some of the underlying issues have been in play for many years. On the eve of Design Northampton Week, let’s revisit some of the voices from Northampton: Reflections on Paradise (1988), […]
Continue reading Today’s Urban Planning Debates Echoed in Northampton’s Near Past
We are pleased to pass along this announcement from the Northampton Design Forum… YOU ARE INVITED TO DESIGN NORTHAMPTON WEEK The Northampton Design Forum invites you to participate in Design Northampton Week, a week-long opportunity for the community to come together and develop a common vision of our future. The Notre Dame University Urban Design […]
Continue reading You Are Invited to Design Northampton Week, September 7-13
[8/30/08 update: Joel Russell sent us the following comments, which we are reprinting with permission: Thank you for posting the video of the Planning Board meeting. I would like to offer some clarifications and corrections, however: The Planning Board has never been asked to contribute public funds. When the Board voted in June, the main […]
Continue reading Video: Planning Board Hammers Out Cautious Support for Design Northampton Week
Here is a video of the complete Best Practices Forum that took place on August 25. We are giving the Vimeo web video platform a try. The video is about 86 minutes long. Here is an excerpt from the Best Practice Committee’s press release publicizing this forum: It took two years and eight major public […]
Continue reading Video: Best Practices Forum Studies Evolution of Meadows Plan
The April 2008 issue of The Atlantic describes the benefits of urban gardens in Holyoke. As in Northampton, the harvest goes beyond food to include education and community-building. A few excerpts: A Papaya Grows in Holyoke …Holyoke [is] fertile ground for “urban agriculture”–the successor to the still-flourishing community-garden movement, which itself grew out of World […]
Continue reading Urban Community Gardens Flourish in Holyoke