CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • Farms in the Sky

    This is crazy: The New York Times is featuring an article about the “new interest in vertical farms.” Quoting: The idea, which has captured the imagination of several architects in the United States and Europe in the past several years, just caught the eye of another big city dreamer: Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. When Mr. Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a “food farm” addition to the New York City skyline. “Obviously we don’t have vast amounts of vacant land,” he said in a phone interview. “But the sky is the…

  • Alexandria’s Growth

    Original town settlement Alexandria in the early 20th Century Alexandria in the late 1940s Alexandria in 1969 Alexandria in 1979 Alexandria in 1999 (and below: Alexandria today):

  • Smarter, Stronger Cities: Learning from the UK

    Last month, Chris Webber of the Brookings Institution published a thirteen page report entitled Smarter, Stronger Cities: UK Urban Policy Innovations and Lessons for the US. The report argues that, while the UK has borrowed many land use and planning policies from the United States, they have also developed a series of innovative policies, which the US would be wise to consider. But before exploring those policy innovations, it is important to note that the UK’s system of delivering tax dollars on a municipal level is very different than what we do in the United States. The federal “central” government…