Neighborhoods for People

Scan | Design Foundation, University of Washington’s Green Futures Research & Design Lab, International Sustainability Institute, and Gehl Architects have produced a guide to how to conceptualize livable communities for Seattle, Washington entitled Neighborhoods for People.

It's intended to guide neighborhoods, non-profits, professionals, and students when they’re thinking about what kind of communities in which they wish to live, work, and play. This richly illustrated document (it's almost entirely photography) urges people to look around and see the public spaces they live in. It all around us: in Seattle, 46% of the land is owned by the public. The document provides methods and processes to make your neighborhood yours.

And, yes, much of the land in a city is publicly owned because of the roads, trails and sidewalks! What does traveling (by car, bike, foot, bus, rail, etc.) tell you about the neighborhoods you travel to? What are you sensing about neighborhoods that you’d rather just pass through without stopping? You and I, we’re students in this world of planning, and this document is, in part, talking directly to us. Go take a look!