Dr. Rutherford Platt has kindly given us permission to reprint the full text of his September 6 guest column in the Gazette. Dr. Platt cautions about the hazards of overplanning a city: The ‘humane micropolis’ Northampton has evolved on its own terms “Design Northampton Week,” which begins this Sunday evening at the Senior Center on […]
Continue reading Rutherford Platt, “The Humane Micropolis” – Full Text
Here is a complete Google video of Design Northampton Week’s first public “in-process” presentation and feedback session that took place last night. It’s one hour and 42 minutes long. The Notre Dame design team discussed the historical settlement patterns and geography of Northampton and indicated potential areas of focus. Citizens were not shy to give […]
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
As reported in today’s Gazette, the newly signed Environmental Bond Bill includes an offer of funds to help conserve the woods off North Street. We are deeply grateful for this support from the state to preserve our urban greenspace. Here is the relevant portion of “An Act Providing for the Preservation and Improvement of Land, […]
Continue reading State Offers Funds to Help Conserve North Street Woods
Urban greenery gets some love in the Summer 2008 issue of CommonWealth Magazine… Seeing the forest and the trees …Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the Urban Forest Coalition announced last year that they intended to plant 100,000 new trees by 2020, increasing the city’s tree canopy to 35 percent [from 29 percent currently]… [A survey […]
The sales copy for this $875,000 home in Amherst suggests that Kohl Construction well knows the value of greenspace to a home buyer (emphasis added): Gorgeous custom-designed Doug Kohl 5 bedroom Contemporary home with gourmet kitchen w/Granite & butler pantry on lovely landscaped yard allowing privacy yet in a neighborhood. Family room with 20′ vaulted […]
Continue reading Adjacent Conservation Land Promoted as Feature of Kohl-Built Home in Amherst
At the kind invitation of Joel Spiro and Vincent Silluzio, we visited the Bixby Court condos on June 20 to take a closer look. The development consists of ten units housed in seven buildings. It includes two homes built in the early 19th century and remodeled plus five new farmhouse-style townhouse units. Each unit includes […]
At the February 7 meeting of Northampton’s planning board, one member characterized as “carbuncles” condo developments that integrate poorly with their surrounding neighborhoods. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of some attractive streets with detached houses in the North Street neighborhood, and then contrast them with three carbuncle candidates–two built and one proposed. Trees […]
The May 9 Wall Street Journal notes that a softening real estate market has made conservation a more attractive option for some landowners: Real-Estate Drop Has a Green Lining There’s a green lining to the real-estate cloud: Developers are dropping plans to build on some choice pieces of land and instead are selling it for […]
Continue reading Wall Street Journal: “Real-Estate Drop Has a Green Lining”
Northampton is one of the “best places to retire” according to U.S. News & World Report and Money Magazine. A similar positive citation in the New York Times is mentioned on the City of Northampton website. Retiree in-migration can look attractive to city officials because their households consume a relatively low proportion of city services, […]
Continue reading U.S. News to Retirees: Choose a locale with plenty of greenspace