Daily Plan It Office of Planning & Community Development

The Daily Plan It Blog

A OPCD Blog

Urban Innovations Speakers Series Begins March 7

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OPCD will be hosting Urban Innovations to increase public awareness of global best practices to achieve an integrated approach to planning for livable cities.

Topics will include:

  • affordable housing
  • urban design for community health
  • community-based resilience
  • new trends in urban development
  • integrated land use, open space, transportation design and sustainability

 

The series will bring recognized experts to Seattle, joined by local and regional speakers to help ground the series in issues specific to Seattle and the region.

To kick off the series on March 7th, Sam Assefa will welcome his fellow planning directors from Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco to discuss their efforts to support more affordable housing. West Coast cities continue to struggle with high housing costs. Low and moderate-income housing is difficult to develop given today’s methods of building and price of land. Yet innovations are being pursued and this discussion will identify intersecting strategies that create opportunities to address the challenge. Local experts will share their experiences with innovative public and private strategies being implemented here to address this need.

Creating affordable housing: Lessons from Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle
March 7th, 5:30pm, Seattle Central Library

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Our Urban Planner Holiday Gift Guide!

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With the holidays and 2017 quickly approaching, this time for some is spent on last minute gift shopping. For those who are racking their brains on what to get a family member, friend, or co-worker, here’s are some urban-planning themed suggestions (OPCD staff take note for next year, hint hint).

 

1. URBAN FOLD (Planetizen, $24.95)

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From Planetizen.com: Urban Fold is an all-inclusive kit that allows anyone to build the city of their dreams with a few simple folds. You punch out shapes, fold them into blocks, customize with stickers, build + play, put away, build + play again, etc.

Our take: A really fun art kit that can be enjoyed by people of any age.

 

2. LEGO ARCHITECTURE STUDIO (Lego, $159.99)

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From Lego.com: Bring your architectural creations to life in LEGO® form with LEGO Architecture Studio. In this amazing set you get over 1200 LEGO bricks and an inspirational guidebook filled with 272 pages of tips, techniques, features, and intuitive hands-on exercises endorsed by leading design houses. LEGO Architecture Studio gives you everything you need to create your very own unique buildings. Let your imagination guide your design!

Our take: Let’s be honest, it’s Lego packaged for adults!

 

3. COLORFUL SEATTLE – EXPLORE & COLOR (Amazon, $14.95)

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From Amazon.com: From Chittenden Locks Fish Ladder to Olympic Sculpture Park where will you explore today? Colorful Seattle Explore & Color is an exploring guide and coloring book for Seattle.

Our take: For color book enthusiasts and those who always envisioned our downtown library as multicolored, your dreams have been fulfilled. Also great to encourage younger artists about how color is involved in urban design!

 

4. BETWEEN TWO CITIES (Stonemaier Games, $35.00)

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From Stonemaier Games: In Between Two Cities, you are a world-renowned city planner who has been asked to redesign two different cities. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with a partner with whom to discuss and execute your grandiose plans. Each turn features a simultaneous discussion with your two partners to decide which of your tiles to place into the cities you’re building with each of them and where in those cities to place the tiles. At the end of the game, there is only one winner, as each player compares the lowest scoring of their two cites.

Our take: Sounds like a perfect gift for those who are into city planning and board games, using strategy and teamwork to create a livable city.

 

5. Urbanized (Amazon.com, $10.48)

From IMDB.com: A documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Our take: An interesting visual take on how design influences our way of life, especially in the world of planning and community development.

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University District Shared Vision Plan

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Over the last five years, hundreds of U District residents have contributed ideas on how to build a more livable, walkable neighborhood as Sound Transit light rail comes to their community. For the first time, all new developments will contribute to affordable housing.

Proposed zoning changes respond to community priorities with rigorous design standards and incentives for public open space, space for social services, and childcare centers. Other incentives will help preserve historic buildings and the pedestrian shopping district of the Ave.

For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/dpd/udistrict.

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