During class the other day we went into a card shop, as one does. In said card shop, I found the poster below. As a Parisian native who also lived in NYC, and an urban planner to boot, I have feelings about this poster. OK, really my first though…
I posted semi-recently about the convergence of my nerdery and work interests with the Urban Design Alignment Chart. That was a fun little project, but last fall I joined those two interests more seamlessly. So seamlessly, in fact, that I didn’t even t…
It’s all fun and games (until you build a city) Read More »
Since the Notre Dame fire, I’ve had lots of interesting conversations and fielded many pertinent questions. I thought instead of endlessly repeating myself, I should write some of this stuff down. Here goes: What exactly was lost? How do we fix it? The…
Notre Dame: Follow-up Thoughts Read More »
As I write this, Notre Dame is on fire. I’m not going to show photos of the blaze. It feels like looking at a crime, looking at a corpse. I should be grading right now – sorry students – but I can’t focus on anything except this loss. So I’…
Friends, family, and heck, random strangers at this point know that our neighbor’s tree fell on our house last March. I’ve blogged a little about it, but I haven’t written up too much yet. This is because (1) I didn’t want to jinx our rebuild as it was…
Since I’m an urban planner and a preservationist, people ask me about random urban stuff all the time. Why is this street like that? What does this kind of roof mean? When was this built? This can be a really fun game. But to be good at it, I constantl…
I’ve been on the gamification train for a long time. Still, I haven’t run out of things to learn, so when Mary Kayler announced a gamification workshop this spring, I was eager to sign up. Creating successful gamification classes/assignments is very time intensive, and I’ve had an idea brewing in my head a long time: …
Last year, in an effort to “walk the walk”, I reviewed the LEGO Robie House. I find myself teaching the LEGO FSEM again this fall, and figured: well, let’s walk again. This time, I picked a set I was super excited about, the CITY Fun in the Park set. It’s a pretty small set, considering …
LEGO Critique Deux: CITY Fun in the Park Set (This time it’s PERSONAL!) Read More »
I haven’t blogged in forever. Not to excuse my lack of output but I do have a new baby and classes and a six year old and I am department chair. So I’ve had other stuff on my mind. Still, I’ve missed blogging. It’s a good way to stay abreast of current events and express …
Mono…! D’oh! Or, why we should invest in infrastructure maintenance Read More »
