Urban Design: ‘People-oriented’ zone could transform city
Transit is absolutely an important component of successful, livable places. But it’s all the things that surround transit that the new zoning overlay addresses.
Tom Gallagher
Articles
Urban Design: Urban design, like fashion, should cover more than the basics
Design is often misconstrued to be a luxury. Yet, at its core, design is about creatively solving the problems we all face at any scale.
Urban Design: Indy can advance by seizing these major opportunities
We also have an abundance of potential catalytic projects—either in design or gaining momentum—that, thoughtfully executed and with the right partners in place, could set the bar for our next 100 years.
Urban design: Columbus, Ohio—Indy’s peer city—has thrown down the gauntlet
Now, in my observation, Columbus has made up the gap in its downtown while making its neighborhoods even stronger.
Urban Design: Gender is too often ignored in city design
In the design of our cities, we too often default to the average male as a stand-in for everyone.
Urban design: Biden plan could wake us up to benefits of rail
The recently released transportation plan from the Biden administration includes numerous initiatives that will be significant to cities, but the $80 billion designated for upgrading passenger rail is one of the most significant and could vault Indy forward.
Urban Design: Effective memorials help us make connections
The making of lasting and consequential memorials, however, can be a supremely difficult task, even under the best of conditions.
Tom Gallagher: Indy, like other cities, can turn the cold to its advantage
It is striking, though, how often cities that are far north of us outrank us in quality of life and livability metrics—indices that typically include weather as a factor.
Tom Gallagher: Let’s stop pitting urban and suburban against one another
It is important to understand, too, that a desire for urban living is not simply a hipster trend or a temporary phase of youth.
Urban Design: COVID puts a focus on our need for more housing
Healthy cities have multiple housing types at a variety of price points.
URBAN DESIGN: Help yourself—and your city—with a pandemic getaway
Businesses in Indy’s downtown and elsewhere in the region are counting on you for their survival.
URBAN DESIGN: Pandemic shows the importance of public transportation
The people who’ve been riding it are the ones who keep our economy moving.
URBAN DESIGN: Visitors alone can’t build a sustainable downtown
Healthy city centers have enough people living in them to keep businesses alive in good times and bad.
URBAN DESIGN: Murals worth celebrating in an otherwise rough year
Art and artists have always been a comfort during crises.
URBAN DESIGN: Let’s build places—and relationships—that harness diversity’s strength
People who work together in diverse groups learn from one another and build places all of us can be proud of.
URBAN DESIGN: Crisis provides an opportunity to reconsider our shared spaces
It’s time to try new things, like turning over some of the public right-of-way for restaurant seating.
URBAN DESIGN: What will this crisis teach us about preparedness, urban design?
We need to be smart about the lessons we take away from our experience with COVID-19.
URBAN DESIGN: The best downtowns encourage community
Buildings that shut out street life are all about isolation, a concept we’re experiencing to an uncomfortable degree.
URBAN DESIGN: Planting trees: A simple act with many benefits
We shouldn’t accept the existence of barren, tree-less blocks downtown or elsewhere in our city.
URBAN DESIGN: Urban beauty offers a competitive advantage
Indy needs to pay more attention to the role aesthetics play in drawing people and investment.