Third Wave Urbanism

Cities are host to a variety of cultural assets, from local music to theatre, community arts and nightclubs. But not all of them prioritize these assets or their infrastructure — the spaces where creatives work, live and perform. In the quest to attr...Show More

The night has the power to invoke a myriad of emotions — from fear to romance, melancholy to excitement. Whatever your feelings, the fact remains that the nighttime consists of half of our time on this earth, and that means half of our time in our ci...Show More

African Americans make up about 12 percent of the population in the U.S. but only about two percent of registered architects, with African American women consisting of .02 percent of architects overall. If the practice is meant to reflect the people ...Show More

We are so delighted to have been invited to this year’s annual NACTO Designing Cities conference! In this very special live recording we talk with Skye Duncan, Director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative, about their upcoming initiative on chi...Show More

Airbnb can be a contentious issue — it can give you a more affordable place to stay, a more authentic experience in a city, and allow you to meet new people from the places you’re visiting. On the other hand, it can “black out” entire blocks of touri...Show More

It’s been a busy month for us between trips abroad, conferences, and new jobs, so we thought it would be a good time to sit down for a catch-up chat. Tune in as we discuss blog baby anniversaries, feminist planning in Stockholm, and Placemaking Week ...Show More

Our cities are complex, and it will take more than one lens to tackle the issues we’re facing. But what does it mean to be interdisciplinary in urbanism? Deland Chan and Kevin Hsu, cofounders of the Human Cities Initiative at Stanford, are tackling t...Show More

Nearly two months after the violent and hateful events in Charlottesville, Virginia, we sit down with Elgin Cleckley — assistant professor of architecture and design thinking at the University of Virginia — to talk about his experience as a black des...Show More

A focus on walking can be the common denominator in making our cities more livable. In this episode we talk with Kate Kraft, Executive Director of America Walks, about celebrating 20 years of walking advocacy and what we can do to make our cities mor...Show More

In case you haven’t heard (somehow) Amazon is searching for its second headquarters and the cities of America — and Canada — are dressing to impress in a mad scramble to reply to the RFP. Which city will it be? How will Amazon choose the lucky winner...Show More

Philadelphia is about to undergo an unheard-of overhaul into its parks, rec centers, and libraries through the Rebuild program — a much needed revival for many underserved communities who rely on these assets as veritable town centers. In this episod...Show More

This week we have a special episode on the incredible storm surging through Houston this weekend, Hurricane Harvey. With our guest, Tanvi Misra, author of the CityLab article The Vulnerable Communities in Harvey’s Path, Mapped, we discuss the issues ...Show More

The recent discussions, protests, and removal of confederate monuments following the events in Charlottesville have helped revive the conversation around who we are as a country, who we were, and who we want to be — as memorialized in our public spac...Show More

This past weekend, the Third Wave Urbanism ladies, Kristen and Katrina, met for the second time to celebrate a birthday and record an episode — and promptly had technical difficulties (again). However, we re-recorded this important conversation about...Show More

Historically, “jaywalking” wasn’t an issue. Until the dominance of vehicles (and auto companies assisted by police forces) people and vehicles of all kinds mixed on American streets. Today people walking in cities face the risk of prosecution — or wo...Show More

Mandatory parking minimums are an important part of how our cities are shaped (we swear!) and we are happy to see the subject explained in a more digestible way in a recent video by Vox and Mobility Lab. In our first video-inspired episode, we discus...Show More

It’s no secret that the justice system in the United States needs reform. A proposal in New York City aims to address one specific link in the chain: city jails. What if jails were community hubs? How does treating people with dignity improve recidiv...Show More

You know it when you walk by a spruced up front stoop, or walk through a park with plentiful benches — the little design elements make a big difference in our day to day urban lives. Now, thanks to the Center for Active Design, science has shown just...Show More

Gentrification has almost been labeled a veritable dirty word in many urbanist circles, oversimplified by some to encompass “societal ills” that should probably be called out for what they are. But whether alluding to racism and displacement, rising ...Show More

How can we reimagine our streets and turn them into dignified, safe, and healthy places for people? Oslo is on its way to transforming its downtown into a completely car-free district, in an ambitious plan to make the city even healthier through walk...Show More

A few years ago Pittsburgh made some bold claims - to be more livable, equitable, and to create a tech hub that promotes diversity. But how is it doing? This week's episode is about one man's experience raising a son in a world that still harasses an...Show More

Redfin has released Walk Score’s 10 Most Walkable Cities of America and New York City is on top once again. Katrina + Kristen are pleased to see their respective cities at the top, though some ranks have shifted this year… Do the top 10 cities surpri...Show More

This week’s episode gets to the heart of the matter — being a woman in a city and what that means for the otherwise patriarchal planning processes that have formed cities up until now. It can’t be avoided, and we argue that it shouldn’t, if we’re to ...Show More

The one, the only, Jane Jacobs. This week's episode needs very little introduction. Kristen and Katrina talk about the latest documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, and the implications of privilege in protest, women in urbanism, historic pre...Show More

What happens when young boys take the streets? In Philadelphia a recent informal “critical mass” event sparked outrage from a local news anchor who even went so far as to criticize their “manliness” due to riding a bike.  Personally, we love these g...Show More

Tactical urbanism is a bottom-up and top-down urban intervention typically aimed towards improving cities for everyone. From Park(ing) Day to Better Block, tactical urbanism has turned streets into safe cycle tracks and unused asphalt into pedestrian...Show More

Richard Florida - love him or hate him there's no denying he is a mainstay of urban theory. After his bestselling book "The Rise of the Creative Class" drove a new era of innovation and commercial redevelopment - some say to a fault - we find ourselv...Show More

Following the election in the US, we were faced with a different set of realities - personally, politically, even spiritually. Now that we're in a more productive space (finally), we're moving forward to make a difference where we can, while explorin...Show More

This episode explores the future of driving, or more specifically the predicted future of autonomous/driverless/self-driving vehicles. No matter what you call it, it has a lot of both ethical and human-centered issues, and as we continue testing this...Show More

When we think about New Orleans we conjure up an image of mystique, music, but also history, and even despair. Kristen made a visit recently in what is the first of our City Spotlight series, focusing on three amazing women helping to make their city...Show More

Bikes have become in many ways a loaded term you're either for or against. They incite aggression when bike lanes replace car parking, and bring up questions of gentrification and equity when dispersing bike share corrals or protected lanes. So what ...Show More

The world of good urban advocacy is still often dominated by a white male voice. One of our goals for Third Wave Urbanism is to bring to the forefront the many varied voices that aren't necessarily highlighted in conferences and panels, the news, and...Show More

The subject of shopping may sound one-dimensional at first, but there's a lot to be said about urban form and how we access centers of commerce that are available to us. In this episode we think back on our experiences growing up in and around main s...Show More

Riding public transportation while female is an experience in and of itself, and often presents challenges that are not considered in transportation planning. Around the world, our experiences may differ depending on the level of acceptance of being ...Show More

What does it mean to rank cities on livability or quality of life? In this episode we look at the recently released Monocle Quality of Life Survey for 2016 and discuss how it, and other ranked city lists (not listicles!), can impact the way cities pr...Show More

In this episode of Third Wave Urbanism, we talk about the Olympics in Rio and the urban design surrounding it and other Olympic events. The Olympics are great for their globalization efforts, raising awareness of diverse women in sports, and genera...Show More

In this pilot episode of Third Wave Urbanism, Kristen and Katrina discuss the Pokémon Go phenomenon and how it relates to public spaces in cities. As millennials, we grew up with the early introduction of technology in the household, but also the i...Show More