City: 2050

What will your city look like in 2050?

Peering into the future is a favorite exercise for planners and designers. From the Chicago 1893 Columbian Exhibition to New York City’s two Worlds Fairs (1939 and 1965) and beyond, the future was optimistic and filled with cool technology and architecture. But not all views of the future were so hopeful. George Orwell’s dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (published in 1949) looked 35 years forward and painted a not-so-rosy vision of the future.

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How Urban Design Can Save Lives

Image courtesy Matt Quinn

This post is part of a blog series related to Dialogue 30, "The Livability Issue.”

As Designers and Planners, we base our design concepts on a variety of inputs: site program, client preferences, industry practices, etc. But we still build parts of our cities the same way we have for nearly a century. This failure to consider our evolving needs and adapt to them may be killing us!

Urban Design can help. Here are three ideas – local, neighborhood and citywide.

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Project Spotlight: Building a Better Block with Better Block

Image © Gensler

At the edge of Dallas’ Bishop Arts District, what was once an unremarkable, unvisited concrete corner is now a lush, welcoming neighborhood hangout. The hub of this activity is the new Better Block headquarters. Part office, part co-working space, part venue and part maker-space, the new headquarters is a flexible collision of diverse programs, a synthesis of urban design experimentation and community hub.

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Autonomous Vehicles Part I: The Future Is Here

EZ10 self-driving shuttle in use, photo by Joe Pobiner © Gensler

There’s been a LOT of talk about autonomous vehicles recently. Every automaker is promising a self-driving car within the next few years, and every conference has several sessions dedicated to the consequences of this new technology. But did you know that autonomous technology is already here? (And has been for quite some time.)

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How Will Mobility's Future Impact Our Cities?

Image © Gensler

This blog piece is based on a Q+A discussion held with Gensler designers Richard Jacob, Michaela Winter-Taylor and Kenneth Allan. It is the first in a series of blog posts that charts the teams’ research and findings as they delve deeper into the future of mobility.

Transportation and mobility are the lifeblood of our cities that form the very real and physical backbone of our increasingly digital economies, but they also come with a downside; noise, congestion, pollution and safety issues. In our pursuit for the holy grail of sustainable, clean, reliable, safe and affordable mobility, will the reality of what’s available ever match our dreams and aspirations?

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