The urban experience is helped or hindered by elements that are ulitmately the responsibility of Civil Engineers. Despite this obvious statement, many of the urban form frustrations we experience day to day in our travels about our neighbourhoods or cities were decisions made by engineers or those in municipal or utility organizations that act under the authority of engineers
Category Archives: Development
Foreclosure [infographic]
Foreclosure is seen as a last resort for many, perhaps a reminder of mistakes made in investing or how the bank that you’ve given countless fees to over the years, let you down, lending you money for a home they should have known was risky. The infographic below tries to cut through the emotions and […]
Tall Timber Buildings
With the failure of the suburban experiment, rising house prices and a greater desire to be in the downtown, designers are looking to stretch the limits of materials, to satisfy changing needs. Added to this, Canadian designers are looking to find ways to use pine beetle infested timber from our forests. But now, designers are […]
Sidewalks
The planners out there might get upset to know that an engineer has crashed their party, then again, who knows, maybe they’ll be happy to have me along. Fifty years ago, Jane Jacobs, an activist, critic, author and urbanist, wrote the seminal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. This is the first book to be read […]
Growthbusters
It seems as if we are commonly told that the answer to whatever problem our communities are facing is more density, more houses, better transportation networks and more opportunities for consumerism. In other words that we must keep growing to keep feeding the machine that our society has become. I don’t know about you, but […]
A Changed World
Communities around North America are waking up to a changed world. Our expectation for continuous improvement of the systems that support our lifestyles, transportation choices and patterns of housing has been shaken. Budget cuts are forcing communities and governments to reconsider priorities; in Washington State a new user fee was introduced for users of recreation trails, to […]
Transit Resiliency
I am a big advocate of having alternative modes of transport, after all motor vehicles are an expensive* and dirty mode of transport that we have historically given too much influence to in the design of our cities. I believe that the value of a dwelling, particularly in an urban setting, is relative to its […]
Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Economics
In recent months we have seen emergencies and natural disasters strike communities around the world. Every emergency unfolds differently, but in cities, industrial or agricultural areas, there are always social and economic impacts from the situation. One of the more contentious questions that follows a disaster is simply, “What could have been done differently to prepare […]