State of the Art in Planning for College and University Campuses: Site Planning and Beyond

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Colleges and universities have been planning their campuses for centuries, yet scholars have conducted little empirical research regarding the nature of campus planning in the United States. We review recent scholarship on campus planning, discovering that it is dominated by case studies (sometimes in edited collections) and some comparative studies. In this review we organize the literature into 3 geographic scales: the campus per se (or campus park), the campus–­community interface, and the larger campus district. The literature addresses 5 topics: land use, design, sustainability, economic development, and collaboration. Most of the studies focus on research-oriented universities in metropolitan locations. The literature emphasizes how campus master planning can support student learning, how design and building guidelines can make a campus more cohesive, and how campuses are adopting sustainable development and operations. At the campus–­community interface, the research documents how some colleges and universities have expanded beyond their traditional boundaries, invested in local economic development, and worked with their communities to improve transportation and reduce environmental impacts. Studies of campus district planning emphasize community adoption of development regulations and code enforcement procedures to reduce the impact of students living in nearby neighborhoods. The literature stresses the importance of partnerships, collaboration, and enhanced communications between the university and the community.

Takeaway for practice: University planners should continue to focus on site design that reinforces student learning and environmental sustainability and on community interface planning that supports economic development and reduces environmental impacts. City planners should expand campus district planning to address a broad array of issues and opportunities. Both university and city planners should facilitate collaboration between their institutions. Scholars should study a wide range of colleges and universities, including 2-year as well as 4-year institutions and those in nonurban settings.     

降低小区住宅建设造价的几个途径

从住宅建设的决策、住宅小区规划设计的原则、住宅形式、住宅进深等方面介绍了降低小区住宅建设造价的途径,指出小区住宅的建设造价关系到居民的经济承受能力,并对住宅市场化进程和房地产业的健康发展有着极为重要的影响。     

A Trail Across Time: American Environmental Planning From City Beautiful to Sustainability

Problem: It would be useful to identify and connect the major ideas of American environmental planning from the late 19th century up to today, to show its evolution over time and anticipate its potential future direction.

Purpose: I aim to tie together the major ideas of American environmental planning, showing how they have evolved, and suggest what additional changes will be required to progress further toward sustainability.

Methods: I review the literature, defining five time periods that are useful for understanding and analyzing environmental planning successes and shortcomings.

Results and conclusions: Environmental planning has its roots in the physical design of cities and the tension between conserving natural resources for human use and protecting wilderness. In the 1920s, regional environmental planning emerged. Federal environmental impact statements were first required in the 1970s, along with efforts to clean up and prevent pollution. A backlash against government command and control began in the 1980s, leading governments to use incentives to address environmental problems. The current era makes sustainability the goal, tying together the ideas and practices of the previous eras and blending regulation and financial incentives to address national and global environmental problems, such as climate change. To reduce carbon footprints and increase water and energy conservation in the face of significant population growth in the United States will require making environmental planning a political priority, with the goals of curbing sprawling land development, and changing lifestyles and business practices.

Takeaway for practice: Environmental planning ideas have been around for the past century and underlie the currently popular concept of planning for sustainability. However, environmental planning has been only modestly effective at influencing business practices and lifestyles. To change this, federal and local governments will have to lead by example, pursuing environmental sustainability as seriously as they pursue economic growth.

Research support: None.     

Unimaginable Change

Problem: Planning aspires to intervene and make positive change. However, our ideas about how to create institutional reform need to be revisited because they do not fully account for the changes we have witnessed.

Purpose: This article assesses the state of our knowledge about institutions and of how we construct and change them. It identifies the major deficiencies in new institutionalism in planning theory and searches for ideas about how to influence positive institutional change.

Methods: I analyzed over 90 publications in the planning literature and other social sciences that discussed “institutions,” and identified the varying definitions and underlying epistemologies and philosophies that are at odds with each other. I then examined empirical studies of successful economic development cases in order to critically appraise the efficacy of different theories to account for the observed changes.

Results and conclusions: Disparate new institutionalism theories in the social sciences have been starting to converge by focusing on social cognition. The unimaginable, fundamental changes that have occurred in our lifetimes have not been the result of rational state planning, manipulation by political elites, or activist organizations. A society-wide process of tacit learning from peers and exemplars built new paradigms and practices, ultimately normalizing new realities.

Takeaway for practice: Planning practice that aims toward large institutional changes rather than incremental ones should incorporate the empirical lessons of contemporary history and the latest findings in cognitive science. Knowing more about the social cognition process can help planners to more effectively engage in fundamental change. Furthermore, if it retains its strengths in empirical research and multiscalar, interdisciplinary analysis, planning practice and research can make policy-relevant contributions to our understanding of social cognition change.

Research support: None.     

Coles' New World and the Status of the Plan

Abstract

Melbourne's district centre planning policy has been critically assessed in previous papers. This one looks at the case of how G.J. Coles' new head office came to be approved at a location away from those areas defined for office development in the metropolitan plan. The paper examines the role of politicians, planners, developers and their clients in that contemporary urban development process.     

Planning for the Disposal of the Dead

Problem: Concurrent with the dramatic increase in the nation's elderly population expected in coming decades will be a need to dispose of larger numbers of our dead. This issue has religious, cultural, and economic salience, but is not typically considered a planning problem. Although cremation rates are rising, burial is projected to remain the preferred alternative for the majority of the U.S. population, and urban space for cemeteries is limited in many communities.

Purpose: We outline issues related to cemeteries and burial, describe a number of alternatives to traditional cemeteries, and explain how planners might usefully contribute.

Methods: This work is based on a literature review.

Results and conclusions: Alternatives to the cemetery are emerging, but remain limited. Some require changes to laws or public perceptions. Planning practice could be advanced by case studies showing how to integrate burial grounds into existing communities and how to alter public policy to permit alternatives to burial.

Takeaway for practice: As population demographics change, environmental concerns intensify, and demand for urban space grows, future land use decisions will have to balance a diverse set of social, cultural, and environmental expectations, including taking into account burial practices. There are only a handful of alternatives to traditional burial in a cemetery: burial in a multiple-use cemetery; natural burial; entombment in a mausoleum; cremation, with the ashes preserved in a columbarium or scattered elsewhere; and burial in a grave that will be reused in the future. This article provides planners with information about each of these alternatives, examples of how the planning process can address disposal of the dead, suggestions for avoiding environmental externalities, and ideas for better integrating the landscapes of death into community life.

Research support: None     

The Proof of the Planning Is in the Platting: An Evaluation of Florida's Hurricane Exposure Mitigation Planning Mandate

Problem: In his “Competitive Advantages of the Inner City” papers, Michael Porter maintained that comparative advantages of inner-city economies, once recognized, would lure profit-motivated investors to start new ventures and expand existing businesses in these areas. Porter stressed limited access to financing as a major barrier to inner-city economic development and its expanded provision as a remedy.

Purpose: I consider whether Porter's claims match the evidence.

Methods: I investigate both private and government-assisted providers of debt and equity capital to inner-city businesses that appear to exhibit Porter's competitive advantages. I distinguish successful inner-city business financing operations from those that are unsuccessful and use these results to draw lessons about effective and ineffective strategies for increasing inner-city businesses’ access to financing.

Results and conclusions: Lack of financing appears to be an important barrier to inner-city economic development, as Porter concluded, but the comparative advantages he thought made the inner city attractive to profit-seeking investors have not been demonstrated. Porter asserted that inner-city households seeking to buy consumer products were underserved by local firms. However, other researchers did not find this to be the case and new business ventures serving this market have had poor profits and poor rates of survival over time. Porter's revitalization blueprint aimed to create jobs and sustainable businesses to benefit inner-city residents, yet evidence indicates that inner-city firms largely meet their staffing needs by employing workers living outside the inner city. Private venture capital investment in the inner city has not generated attractive returns. However, inner-city lending can be profitable under the right conditions.

Takeaway for practice: There is a lack of business financing available to fund the creation and expansion of inner-city ventures, creating a barrier to inner-city economic development. However, my case studies illustrate that private lenders can be profitable in this market if they have: (a) a sufficiently large and diverse portfolio of investments; (b) lending policies requiring sufficient collateral or loan guarantees to offset defaults; and (c) skilled, experienced, professional managers.

Research support: None.     

浅析居住区中“吸引点”的规划与设计

对何为居住小区中的"吸引点"从不同角度着重进行了分析,指出优秀的小区设计中"吸引点"设计的重点所在,并充分肯定了"吸引点"设计会对小区整体设计带来的巨大作用与经济效益。     

Planning,economic development and the spatial outcomes of market liberalisation

Abstract

The shift of urban governance to neoliberalism raises questions for the role of planning in economic development. Local plans may need to be overruled, but this creates potential contradictions. Local context is critical in this process. In Sydney, planning has been subordinate to economic development under market liberalisation since the late 1970s.     

Infrastructure Planning: in a State of Panic?

Abstract

Infrastructure is routinely framed in contemporary urban policy as a vehicle to grow the economy through the creation of jobs. In periods of economic downturn and when ongoing fiscal uncertainty ensues, governments may look to the construction and maintenance of social and public infrastructure such as social housing and public transport. Cities and communities that have endured infrastructure deficits in the past may become the beneficiaries of adjusted national and state-level policy to support economic prosperity through expedient infrastructure implementation programs. Yet in the post-GFC policy environment urban infrastructure has recentred the role of infrastructure in driving urban economic recovery in terms of economic prosperity. Drawing from the state of exception literature, I call on the notion of urgency to explore infrastructure planning as it manifests at the juncture between strategic planning and implementation. This paper will contribute to the critical urban planning literature by examining how infrastructure prioritisation and implementation is shaped through a characterisation of urgency which subverts the relationship between urban infrastructure planning, implementation and planning process.     

The Migrant Metropolis and American Planning

Problem: Immigration poses various problems for U.S. cities and regions, and the roles planners should play in migrant communities are not clear.

Purpose: I consider how practitioners and scholars have understood and addressed the planning challenges and opportunities presented by the major migrations of ethnic minorities to U.S. cities and regions over the past century.

Methods: I trace discussions of planning and migration at professional planning conferences over the past century and survey planning scholarship and practice related to immigration and migrant communities in three principal eras: early 20th century southern and eastern European immigration; the mid-century internal migrations of African Americans and Puerto Ricans; and immigration in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Results and conclusions: Over the past century, immigration has had physical, economic, and social effects on people and places that are legitimate concerns of urban planners. Yet, the planning profession has had an ambiguous and often ambivalent relationship with migrant communities and has struggled to define specific roles for planners within those communities while social workers and other community and economic development practitioners played larger roles. Planning scholars have not paid as much attention to migrants' adaptation and mobility in U.S. society or their impacts on receiving communities, labor markets, housing, and congestion as have other scholars and urbanists.

Takeaway for practice: Planners have engaged with migrants in a variety of ways. Understanding this history provides context for contemporary debates about immigration and helps frame challenges and opportunities in migrant and receiving communities as planning problems.

Research support: None.     

Energy-saving judgment of electric-driven seawater source heat pump district heating system over boiler house district heating system

As a renewable energy utilization system, the electric-driven seawater source heat pump district heating system is gaining popularity in some coastal areas. However, under what conditions can the system achieve its energy-saving effect and how to evaluate its energy-saving potential are not clear in practice. In this paper, an expression of the critical COP value of the heat pump unit for energy-saving (COP_h,c) is derived through the comparison of the system and the conventional boiler house district heating system in the energy consumption respect. On the other hand, the actual COP values of the heat pump unit (COP_h,a) are calculated by an experimental data regression model on the basis of the manufacturer's dataset. The comparison of the values of COP_h,c and COP_h,a makes the energy-saving judgment of an electric-driven seawater source heat pump district heating system and its energy-saving potential, if it has, readily available. It was found that both the heating district radius and the natural conditions of the seawater are the most important factors that determine the energy efficiency of the system. And through comparison, it was also found that the type of the fuel of the boiler has significant impact on the crucial index value of COP_h,c.     

提升旧区水平启动新区建设

面对提升旧区水平，启动新区建设这一重大课题，在分析现实意义的基础上，论述了旧区，新区发展现状，提出了提升旧区水平与启动新区建设相互协调的策略，以推进太原的率先发展。     

Urban reuse of public spaces in ‘central suburbs’. Two districts between two rivers in the city of Cosenza (Italy)

ABSTRACT

The article describes the results of a research on the theme of regeneration of urban public spaces in historical centres. A multidisciplinary methodological approach of cooperation of various knowledge was adopted to define, also through the application of open and inclusive participatory approaches, precise intervention actions. The research uses two areas on the edge of the historical city of Cosenza (Italy) as a case study. The research, therefore, has achieved, among its main results, that of reinforcing the awareness that an urban context unable to maintain relationships loses its meaning and becomes but a museum of itself.     

Large multifunctional suburban centres and the transformation of the suburban realm

ABSTRACT

The paper contributes to the present reflection on the transformation of the suburb by investigating the capacity of large multifunctional suburban centres (LMSCs) to provide public transit- and walking-conducive environments within the suburban realm. To this end, it investigates land-use and commuter journey patterns of the 13 largest suburban multifunctional centres in Canada. The study exposes difficulties in using LMSCs as recentralization instruments meant to “urbanize” the suburb by making it more public transit- and walking-oriented. It points to tensions within LMSCs between playing the role of activity centre and adopting land-use configurations conducive to public-transit use and walking. The stronger is the centrality role of an LMSC, the more it is overtaken by automobiles from its dispersed suburban surroundings. Alternatively, LMSCs can generate weak centrality effects while performing as effective transit-oriented developments. The paper concludes by highlighting difficulties in overcoming suburban transportation and land-use path dependencies.     

Longer View: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans

Problem: Catastrophic disasters like Hurricane Katrina disrupt urban systems, economies, and lives, and pose huge problems for local governments and planners trying to organize and finance reconstruction as quickly and effectively as possible.

Purpose: This article aims to summarize the key planning challenges New Orleans faced following the August 29, 2005 flooding in order to identify lessons planners can apply following future disasters.

Methods: In this case study we sought to observe key decisions about the recovery as they unfolded. Collectively, we spent months in New Orleans in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and interviewed leaders of all the planning efforts to date. One of us played a lead role in the design and execution of the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), and all observed and/or participated in neighborhood-level planning activities.

Results and conclusions: We agree with previous findings on post-disaster recovery, confirming the importance of previous plans, citizen involvement, information infrastructure, and external resources. We also observe that the recovery of New Orleans might have proceeded more effectively in spite of the inherent challenges in post-Katrina New Orleans. Many local difficulties are a result of the slow flow of federal reconstruction funding. Despite this, the city administration also could have taken a more active leadership role in planning and information management earlier; the city's Office of Recovery Management has since improved this. On the positive side, the Louisiana Recovery Authority has been a model worth emulating by other states.

Takeaway for practice: Planning can inform actions as both proceed simultaneously. Had New Orleans planners not felt so compelled to complete plans quickly, they might have been more effective at providing reasoned analysis over time to support community actions and engaging a broader public in resolving difficult questions of restoration versus betterment. A center for collecting and distributing data and news would have better informed all parties; this remains an important need.

Research support: We received support from the Mid-America Earthquake Center, the Public Entity Risk Institute, and the New Orleans Community Support Foundation.     

Housing Prices and Multiple Employment Nodes: Is the Relationship Nonmonotonic?

Standard urban economic theory predicts that house prices will decline with distance from the central business district. Empirical results have been equivocal, however. Disjoints between theory and empirics may be due to a nonmonotonic relationship between house prices and access to employment arising from the negative externalities associated with proximity to multiple centres of employment. Based on data from Glasgow (Scotland), we use gravity-based measures of accessibility estimated using a flexible functional form that allows for nonmonotonicity. The results are thoroughly tested using recent advances in spatial econometrics. We find compelling evidence of a nonmonotonic effect in the accessibility measure and discuss the implications for planning and housing policy.     

花都城区建设规划的思考

分析了花都区建设规划的成就与弊端,提出了发挥花都优势,高起点确定花都总体目标与区域建设规划的定位,以便把花都建成宜居宜工宜商的现代化城市,更好地促进花都经济的发展,增强与珠江三角洲县市的竞争力.     

人性化居住小区的设计探索

阐述了住宅小区设计从规划到建筑单体设计再到公共服务设施设置的整个过程，阐明了在此过程中如何将人性化原则贯彻到每一个环节是实现人性化的前提，从而为建筑设计师的创作提供了指导。     

经济转型期居住区商业服务设施状况分析

通过对当前商业服务设施使用状况的了解,分析居住区商业服务设施规划设计中存在的问题和不足,并提出规划建设中面临的挑战。居民对居住区商业服务设施的需求已经有了很大变化,适时调整旧规范建立一套符合现状,有利于经济转型期居住区商业服务设施建设良性发展的新规范已刻不容缓。