My first time ever with a $50+ tank of gas in Tuscaloosa.

Of all the words that should never again be used in real estate, "luxury" tops the list because it's totally meaningless. Thanks to @bobbyfijan.bsky.social for the image.

Hey Alabama people, check this out! Of the top 100 best places to live in the US in 2026, Huntsville is #1 in 5 of 9 livability metrics, including the top overall livability metric! livability.com/best-places/... I was born there, but had very little to do with this, but can certainly understand it.

This isn't a hypothetical data center. This is the University of Alabama's nearly-complete High-Performance Computing Center. Don't yet know its noise level, but they don't have to be ugly, and can be good neighbors to the buildings around them.

Dead Internet Theory, and how it's going: apple.news/A1_DFQuzKSA-... Might there be a register or some other device someday soon to classify sites as 100% human, 100% AI, and hybrid? originalgreen.org, for example, is 100% human.

Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 and replaced it with a restored stream, 1000 acre park and improved public transit, not only did it TRANSFORM the city’s public life and economic success, but the car traffic got better. The car traffic got BETTER.

Total driving in the US last year was over half a light-year! Let that sink in.

Car dependence is not inevitable... it is the result of planning choices that have pushed daily needs farther away. The real goal of urban planning should be clear: bring essential services closer, improve accessibility, and give people back their time. usa.streetsblog.org/2026/04/27/u...

NEW: The One-Hour City Conspiracy! “Here's the REAL conspiracy: Too many people are forced into car-dependent lives, with more health harms, crashes, noise, air pollution, social isolation —& less space for everything our streets should be giving us.” Thanks @usa.streetsblog.org #1HourCityConspiracy

So very well put, Professor! I'm likely to use the 1 hour-15 minute distinction widely, and encourage others to as well!

Bravo, Sir!!! The term "masterclass" is used loosely so often, but your address to Congress today sets a standard rarely approached, and I for one, greatly appreciate it, as I suspect millions of my countrymen do as well!

We need raised crosswalks everywhere. A level crossing prioritizes human movement and accessibility, while the physical rise acts as forced friction, demanding speed compliance from motorists. We must stop relying on signs and start relying on physical design.

An app in a restaurant is like a front door in a building: a first impression. What’s the first impression in your business?

If you want to know a little about who I am by where I'm from, Huntsville, Alabama is where "Splashdown!" is bigger than "Touchdown!" It was a great scene in Big Spring Park yesterday for the watch party at the Art Museum: youtu.be/R_67II5vrjA?...

Replacement? Geotag Photos Pro is insanely simple: just start a trip on the iPhone version of the app and it sets your location frequently. After the shoot, the desktop version of the app interpolates the location based on the the recorded data on the phone, which is uploaded to their cloud.

Never trust anyone who hates dogs. Never trust anyone who dogs hate.

In Busan today, we reaffirm a shared ambition: bringing services, opportunities, and quality of life closer to people. This agreement with Pusan National University is a concrete step toward that goal. Thank you to all partners involved.

Wisdom emerges from connecting dots, with the dots being datapoints of things you have experienced or observed to be true. But if you don’t collect the dots, you can’t connect the dots.

The 3 main lessons of my failed #Homestead. Great advice from @stevemouzon.bsky.social #Money #Time #Culture @homesteaders.bsky.social bit.ly/4sa3XmL

The pattern-hunting process is so difficult to do right because we're programmed to think like historians instead of story-tellers. Here's why it pays great dividends to make the break and learn: originalgreen.org/blog/the-pat...

The Black Warrior River. Just over a mile’s walk from home.

A prevailing attitude is "I won't live anywhere more than 7-10 years; why should I care about a house that lasts for a hundred years? This results in buying cheap junk thrown up quick that will fall apart in a few years. Many individual throwaway choices make a throwaway city.

Many have asked what I mean by "re-skinning" buildings so here's the post, finally, with the normal Good-Better-Best triad of Recycle-Repurpose-Reuse plus the Re-Skin hybrid... and why recycling should get a Meh instead of Good: originalgreen.org/blog/a-tale-...

Walk out in front of a car speeding at 40 mph to find out whether you experience death or just a lifetime of suffering with permanent injuries.

On the other side of recent architecture passings of Leon Krier and Robert AM Stern, I just saw where Frank Gehry joined the list today.

“What can cities do to recover from this great planning disaster? Here are three reforms that can help. First, remove off-street parking requirements. Second, charge market-rate prices for on-street parking. Third, invest the resulting meter revenue to improve public services on the metered blocks.“

If a parking spot is empty on Black Friday, it never needed to be built in the first place. Today is an opportunity to document the physical footprint of excessive parking requirements while you happen to be out shopping.

45 years ago this afternoon I took a mystery home with me that forever changed so much, including my career: originalgreen.org/blog/mystery... Never leave a mystery behind.

Wanna go on a mission today that's beyond just shopping? Take the Black Friday Challenge and change your town! Here's how: originalgreen.org/blog/the-bla...

This is the founding principle of the modern suburb.

You gotta pay more for houses with walkability because we don't build nearly enough of them... Walkability shouldn't be a "perk" It should be the default

Here's what happened on our spooky Urban Guild Summit "afterparty" lost in the mountains: originalgreen.org/blog/right-r...

A second-level balcony on a mixed-use building helps shield residents of upper levels from the lights of the sidewalk level, helping those who are actually sleeping at night in the French Quarter.

It’s hard to tell whether the post lamp was deformed by flying hurricane debris or by humans to accentuate the branding of the French Quarter, but twisted lamps like this are on countless T-shirts tourists take home.

The French Quarter masterfully mixes uses. In this building, there’s a shop to the left and the arch to the right leads to a courtyard accessing multiple apartments behind and above the front; a good Missing Middle Housing Commercial Apartment Block.

Outdoor space tends to expand closer to the street, with individual balconies above, a full and deeper balcony on the middle level and the full extent of the city accessible from doors on the street.

Humbler materials have their places on a street, like the utility brick on the right building accentuating the refinement of the front and the roof tiles used ornamentally in the balustrade of the left building.

Never end a building face with the side wall material coming all the way to the corner because it makes the front look pasted-on. At the VERY least, turn the cornice and front wall material at least a little bit like this, if not further.

It’s quite appropriate for a product strongly associated with a place, like Tabasco in the French Quarter, to have its own storefront, as visitors tend to “extend the stay” by taking culinary things home with them.

It is natural, even if not essential, for the first level of a building to be clad in a different material than levels above. In a mixed-use quarter like much of the French Quarter, it calls attention to the street-level businesses, among other benefits.

Placing a balcony on a chamfered corner takes advantage of a rare opportunity in urbanism: the ability to look down all four streets of the intersection from one vantage point.

It’s great when food and beverage establishments open important locations like a street corner window to the sidewalk on all but the more extreme days of the year; it invites people in and helps condition them to Live In Season.

It is sometimes assumed that the most important civic buildings should express only the highest ideals of a civilization, but the Louisiana Supreme Court building subtly reflects its French Quarter home with its metalwork.

The Louisiana Supreme Court building is clad in stone in a highly refined manner, as all important civic buildings should be, as they should communicate their importance to both residents and visitors.

This should be easy in Mac Pages, but is there a way to have sections within a document come up as tabs at the top of the window, like tabs on a website?

I'll be speaking at International Making Cities Livable 62 in Potsdam next month; any recommendations for great German towns to photograph in the Berlin region?

Almost exactly 7 years after moving to Tuscaloosa I have done something. I’ve never done before: walk to Northport. It’s terrifying along a bridge with knee-high handrails and fast industrial traffic. I’m not sure I ever want to do this again!

What a textbook case of classical composition, from head to foot and with refinements at every point! Someone well-versed in classical architecture could easily do an hour-long lecture on this image, if not longer.

Two very different ways of joining columns to beams from more vernacular on the left to highly classical on the right. The wrought iron column and beam panels are nearly identical while the classical elements do specific jobs in more varied ways.

This most refined French Quarter building is clad with a material that really needs to make a comeback: glazed terra cotta. It’s super-durable, able to be crisply shaped, and able to take on pretty much any shape required.