Inspired by a visit to Exhibition Road, Nicholas Boys Smith and Eleanor Broad ask what lessons the transformation of Exhibition Road has for Oxford Street’s pedestrianisation A generation ago, Exhibition Road was a place to avoid, a street that should have been splendid but somehow wasn’t. Broad and generous, and running between the high Victorian […]
Nicholas Boys Smith suggests a little more humility in how we design and manage our streets and buildings if we want to enjoy hot summer days in the city Nearly everything we’ve done to our towns and cities for the last century has heated them up. That might be good in the winter. But it’s […]
Create Streets Associate Director, Eleanor Broad, reports back from 48 hours on the Garonne Last week, I spent 48 hours in Bordeaux. I met with Mayor Pierre Hurmic and his deputy, Didier Jeanjean — the elected official leading on creating calmer, more people-friendly streets (ville apaisée) and on greening the city (végétalisation) — along with […]
A Coventry public official writes anonymously about the restitched future he would like for his city. I often ask myself, what might have been had Coventry taken a different planning approach after World War II. Where might we be now? How might we reverse some of the twentieth century’s planning decisions? It is a question […]