How does one measure the depth of civic engagement in a particular city? What metrics can we use to register the strength of conscience? How can the soul of the city be indexed?BOTC has written before about the simple care of the city. By "simple care" we mean the neighborly awareness and recognition of other urban dwellers or users. The exhibition of simple care is most apparent during the winter...

Cameron Sinclair performs God's work.That is our reaction to Cameron's lecture last night at the Idea Center. The lecture, the last in the recent Talalay Lecture Series sponsored by MOCA Cleveland, was clearly the most interesting, potent, and relevant talk we have experienced in quite a while.While many of us play within the esotericism of current architectural and urban thought, Sinclair and his...

Carolyn Strauss, director of SlowLAB, a design think tank based in New York and Amsterdam, presented her work and thoughts to a small audience at the Idea Center on April 22. Her lecture was the second in the current Talalay Lecture Series "The New Face of Architecture" sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Unfortunately for the audience, there was nothing really new about h...

Parma's urban concerns have snagged the attention of the American Institute of Architects.The city will host a team of sustainability experts, designers, and planners who will conduct a study on Cleveland's most populous suburb.See the story here.Also, recent work from Parma Studio, the Fall 2007 graduate urban design studio at Kent State's Urban Design Center, is still on exhibit at Parmatown Mall...

If one was to exhibit urban design speculations about the storied suburb of Parma, Ohio, where would that be? Of course, the exhibtion would be hung in Parmatown Mall.Work from Kent State's CUDC Fall 2007 Urban Design Studio is now on display in a vacant storefront in the Mall. The student work considered a Parma 2.0, the next iteration of this suburb that is currently losing population, investment...