Blog

IMCL Livability Definition Used in Landscape Institute Journal Article

The latest issue of Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute, features an excellent article entitled “Promoting the Liveable City” which discusses our favorite topic: livable cities! They look at definitions of livability, including IMCL’s definition, and various livable cities initiatives around the world.

Friday Funnies

A new cartoon from the brilliant Ian Lockwood every Friday!

About the artist: Ian Lockwood PE is a Livable Transportation Engineer with Toole Design Group, a WBE firm that does planning, landscape architecture, engineering, and training to evolve cities to be increasingly walkable, bikable, and economically and socially successful.

Friday, July 11th, 2014:

2014 IMCL Lewis Mumford Award to Mayor George Ferguson and Bristol City Council, Bristol, UK

The 2014 International Making Cities Livable Lewis Mumford Award will be awarded to Mayor George Ferguson and Bristol City Council for their leadership in creating a Healthy Bristol for All.

The award recognizes Bristol’s outstanding leadership in:

“Working to enhance streets for social life and celebration, for pedestrians, bicyclists and public transit, and reducing the negative impacts of the car - these measures will improve the health of all residents, especially children.”

New Research Shows That Established Neighborhoods with Older, Smaller Buildings Perform Better

New research conducted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation on the built environments in Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, DC shows that “established neighborhoods with a mix of older, smaller buildings perform better than districts with larger, newer structures when tested against a range of economic, social, and environmental outcome measures.”

Charles Montgomery Interviewed by Streetfilms

Charles Montgomery, author of Happy City and Keynote Speaker at this year's 51st IMCL Conference, recently posted this excellent interview with livable streets advocate Mark Gorton of Streetfilms.

Bravo Bristol!

Congratulations again to the City of Bristol, UK, for demonstrating to the world that a city can be a fun place to live, and a street can become a place for people, not only a channel for cars and buses! This unique event, together with other public events Bristol has organized, will increase Bristolians’ pride and love for their city.

To facilitate your participation in the 51st International Making Cities Livable Conference on Making Cities Healthy for All, IMCL has extended the deadline for the registration rate of $545 from February 1 to March 1. If you become an IMCL Member you can register at HALF price.

John Massengale to speak at 51st IMCL Conference

We’re excited to hear John present ideas and designs from the fantastic, recently released book, Street Design, which he co-authored with Victor Dover. John, an architect and board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, says that he designs buildings with a human scale that look like they were made by human hands.

George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, UK to speak at 51st IMCL Conference

We’re thrilled to have George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, England, as one of our Keynote Speakers at this year’s conference! George is a very interesting guy. Not only is he the first elected Mayor of Bristol (elected in 2012), but he is also an international champion of placemaking, sustainability, and cities for people. Oh, and, ever since he was an architecture student, he’s been pretty easy to recognize since he always wears red trousers!

The Coming Bike Revolution

By Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

One day not long ago (by history’s standards), streets were populated by a friendlier form of transportation: the bicycle. Accompanied by horses, trolleys, and masses of pedestrians as well, the bicycle was the first form of personal transportation before automobiles were even prototypes. Bicycles helped women to become emancipated by providing them with independent mobility. Many don’t realize that in fact it was bicyclists who first demanded that roads should be smoothly asphalted in order to ease transportation as early as the late 1800’s. A few decades later, however, streets quickly became the realm of the car.

Join Us!

At the 51st Conference on Successful Designs for Making Cities Healthy for All in Portland, OR, June 8-12, 2014!

"The conference was one of the most interesting and genuinely useful for information gathering that I’ve been to. The different backgrounds of the participants addressing the same issues was the key."

Joe Anglin Glatting Lopez Kercher Anglin

"A wonderful Conference. I truly believe this is the best Conference on cities."

Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., City of Charleston

"The most important continuous conference dialogue on making the world's cities and towns more livable for all of their inhabitants."

Dr. Sven von Ungern-Sternberg, Governor, State of South Baden, Germany

"Congratulations for your extraordinary and successful effort. The Conference holds a magnifying glass to the world’s best cities, revealing why, and how they work."

Benjamin Thompson, FAIA AIA Gold Medalist

"Love for our cities unites all of us in this unique, impressive conference, with participants from different countries, with different professional backgrounds, but with one purpose: making our cities more livable."

Antonio Casellati Former Mayor, City of Venice, Italy

"Thank you for the utterly fascinating conference in Santa Fe... It has been a long time since I have been intellectually stimulated and been involved with such international creativity and innovations. The conference energized me and I was able to bring back ideas and information to my city."

Councilmember Stephanie Karlin, Avondale, AZ

"What an amazing conference! One of the best professional events I have ever attended!! Well-structured, extremely well-organized and super-high quality of both the presenters and materials presented."

Dr. Mirela Newman, Coordinator, Urban Studies Graduate Program, S Conn St. University

The Forgotten Child

“There is no topic more crucial to the well-being of our cities and of our democracy, and no one more qualified to give it the thoughtful attention it deserves.”