People on WHEELS

This short PSA shows how folks in greater Miami are using bikes, trails and transit-- and combinations of all three-- to move around without sitting in traffic jams. Created for WHEELS week, a five-day mega-event spotlighting quicker, cheaper, healthier, more environmentally friendly ways of getting around. More info at www.wheelsflorida.org

This video was made possible by a grant from Green Mobility Network.

www.greenmobilitynetwork.org

 

Victor Dover Closes NACTO 15 Conference with Great Streets, Great Cities

Dover, Kohl, & Partners is honored to have Victor Dover serve as the closing plenary speaker at this year's NACTO  conference.  The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) is a non-profit association that represents large cities on transportation issues of local, regional and national significance.

This year's Designing Cities conference, held in Austin, Texas from October 28-31, allows transportation leaders and practitioners from across the country to discuss key trends in urban street design and transportation policy. Also, local leaders  can exchange best practices with major city transportation, and private-sector, stakeholders  committed to a common vision toward more vibrant, sustainable cities of tomorrow.

Victor will present "Great Streets, Great City," asking the question 'How can we elevate our cities by creating streets that are not just transportation corridors, but also beautiful and memorable places?' Through his closing remarks, Victor will be share inspiring images and examples from the great cities and boulevards of history. Showcasing the specific design elements that add up to great, inviting streets and cities, he’ll challenge city transportation engineers to expand their role toward moving beyond signage, striping and bollards to thoughtfully create handsome streets that generate civic pride.

Park(ing)'s on Us--Vehicle not Required!

Come PARK with us this Friday--just you, not your vehicle! Dover, Kohl & Partners is hosting its first parking space, joining thousands of organizations across the country, and throughout the world, Friday, September 18.

PARK(ing) Day calls attention to the need for more urban open space, and helps generate critical dialogue on how public space is utilized and its impact on urban human habitat--at least for the day!

PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.

If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by. We'll be set up from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in front of our office, located at 1571 Sunset Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33143.

For more information about Park(ing) Day, visit parkingday.org.

"Zoning for Character" Workshops Being Held this Week

Dover, Kohl & Partners has been leading a series of workshops this week in San Marcos, Texas. These “Zoning for Character” workshops are allowing property owners and residents to learn additional details about the new “character”-based zoning districts and regulating plans being proposed in each of the six Vision San Marcos Intensity Zones.

Beginning in October 2014, the City of San Marcos, Texas and Dover, Kohl & Partners joined by The Street Plans Collaborative, helped re-envision downtown utilizing tactical urbanism—yielding low cost/high gain, long-term change. The Dover-Kohl team effectively engaged the city, the public, and transportation engineers and, in the end, the City of San Marcos presented a recommendation of changes in full detail that were publicized in the SMTX project, ready for permanent implementation.

As one of the fastest growing cities in the nation—for cities with a population of over 50,000 people—Long Range Planning Efforts, including the Code SMTX process to update the Land Development Code, are necessary steps in helping the City ensure positive growth within its community.

The remaining two workshops will be held today as follows: 

San Marcos Activity Center - Room 2

Thursday August 20, 2 - 4pm

Thursday August 20, 6 - 8pm

To learn more about CodeSMTX and the City's Long Range Planning Road Map , visit their website.

CNU 23 Art-Room Sessions Now Online

 

Art-Room session videos from this past April’s CNU 23 event are now available online. An engaging and instructive part of each yearly CNU, the Art-Room sessions aim to inform and educate participants in a wide range of topics including techniques, tools, and interdisciplinary themes from illustration to urban design.

Dover, Kohl & Partners’s James Dougherty—a leader in new urbanist design & illustration—has served as both organizer and a presenter of these sessions for the past three years.

The session topics include: “Modeling New Urbanist Building Types in SketchUp,” “Presentation Rendering Techniques for SketchUp,” and “The Art of Courtyard Design.”

You can view the videos here.

Walton Family Foundation Announces Design Excellence Program

 

A new initiative, the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program, was recently announced by the Walton Family Foundation. The foundation aims to promote the highest level of design excellence for public buildings and spaces. 

Victor Dover, principal of Dover, Kohl & Partners, is among the distinguished panel of professionals who form the program’s selection committee. The panel will review the submissions of local, national, and international designers to be considered for future work within the program.

Designers interested in the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program will be able to apply through Sept. 16. The program expects to support up to three projects per year. 

You may read the foundation’s complete release, and also visithttp://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/design to learn more.

In Production: Video Courses on Form-Based Codes

 

Victor Dover and colleagues were in Los Angeles last week, filming an upcoming series of educational videos for the Form-Based Codes Institute (FBCI) and Planetizen.  

Victor and Joseph Kohl were co-founders of the non-profit FBCI, which started operations in 2004 and has become a leading think tank and an effective educator on reforming land-development regulations. Form-based codes are an alternative to conventional zoning; they help communities build more of the places people want (and less of what they don’t).

For more information regarding FBCI’s upcoming courses and webinars, visithttp://formbasedcodes.org/courses-webinars.

The Warehouse District Design Workshop is in Full Swing!

ReZone Albany’s Warehouse District Design Workshop is in full swing. Beginning Tuesday, the workshop opened with a presentation and guided questions to foster community ideas on what the area can become, drawing from examples of renaissance occurring in similar industrial-type areas.

Working closely with ClarionDover-Kohl is helping lead this event, and the team is making substantial progress. Throughout the Open Design Studio, held yesterday and continuing today, the community has been stopping by and holding discussions with the planners, and seeing how the potential for change is being materialized through engaging illustrations that capture and further advance this new vision.

“This is the first major public event of the ReZone Albany initiative to redraw Albany’s outdated zoning map,” said City of Albany Mayor Kathy M. Sheehan. “The public, the planning department staff, and the design consultant [are] working together to draft a vision that will responsibly build upon what already is a fast-growing neighborhood. For a positive vision to be created, and for the Warehouse District to reach its full potential, we need the community to participate.”

The workshop will conclude Friday May 29, where the Work-in-Progress presentation will describe the work that has been accomplished throughout the week by this collaborative effort between the public and design team. This is the first of likely several more future events planned that will focus on 3-5 more areas of the city as part of this initiative.   


To read more about what's been taking place during the workshop in the news, go to:

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2015/06/01/one-early-version-of-the-next-warehouse-district#main-content
http://www.twcnews.com/nys/capital-region/news/2015/05/26/druthers-in-albanys-warehouse-district.html
http://m.timesunion.com/news/article/Albany-wants-input-this-week-on-the-warehouse-6284615.php

For more information regarding the City of Albany's rezoning and visioning efforts, visit: www.rezonealbany.com.

The Warehouse District Design Workshop Begins Today!

Beginning today May 26, Dover-Kohl is leading the Warehouse District Design Workshop, a four-day visioning, zoning, and form-based coding discussion that will inform the City’s ReZone Albany initiative. This workshop will focus on the Warehouse District, gathering input from members of the public in order to arrive at a collaborative solution, with future workshops focusing on other areas within the City of Albany. 

The rezoning and visioning effort is being led by the City of Albany’s Department of Planning, with participation by various other department, boards and commissions, and professionals comprised of responsible, well-known leaders in the community to ensure alignment with existing community and economic-development plans. 

The workshop will be held at  981 Broadway Albany, NY, 12207; and the schedule is as follows:

For more information regarding the City of Albany's rezoning and visioning efforts, visit: www.ReZoneAlbany.com

Victor Dover to Serve as Moderator for the Streetsmarts: 2015 Transportation Summit

Victor Dover will be this year's moderator for the StreetSmarts 2015 Transportation Summit. 

The summit is a regional event focused on creating safe, livable, connected, sustainable streets for people of all ages and abilities. The event allows participants to collaborate with elected officials, regional experts, and industry leaders to exchange best practices, share innovative ideas. 

Hosted by the City of Fort Lauderdale, the summit will showcase a variety of transportation influencers from multiple disciplines who will host important discussions on topics such as improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, aligning policy, stimulating behavior change, and sharing tri-county successes. 

The Streetsmarts summit will take place on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will be held at: 

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts | Huizenga Pavilion
201 SW 5th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312

For more information about the event, visit: 
StreetSmarts Summit