Creative placemaking, done well, can deliver high value to its stakeholders, including the community, developers, and public and private partners. The distinguishing features of creative placemaking and the attributes present in a well-executed project are evident in three very different real estate developments: a transit-oriented, mixed-use development project in the once-quiet community of Brookland in Washington, D.C.; the redevelopment of a blighted building in the changing Tenderloin community in San Francisco; and a neighborhood revitalization effort in Mill Hill in Macon, Georgia.

The Beijing-born architect has made a name for himself in the United States in recent years after winning the commission to design George Lucas’s museum—originally for Chicago but now slated to end up in either Los Angeles or San Francisco—with each design taking on a different form in response to its site. In the meantime, work progresses on 8600 Wilshire, his first U.S. project to break ground. The modest residential project in Beverly Hills represents the architect’s interest in a design language that merges urbanism with nature: Apartment facades are covered by native plants underneath a cluster of white and glass villas surrounded by trees—a reflection, says Ma, of Beverly Hills itself.

Former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao was announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Transportation, as POLITICO reported Tuesday. The New York Times ‘s Maggie Haberman tweeted that as of Monday night, Chao was seen as a “dark horse” ...What might Chao’s leadership mean for the future of transportation policy? A few key points about her record offer some hints.

[M]ost scientists say that creativity calls on persistence and problem-solving skills, not positivity. Computational scientist Anna Jordanous at Kent University and linguist Bill Keller of Sussex University in England dug through through over half century of study on the creative process in various fields, and isolated 14 components of creativity. Happiness wasn’t one of them.

By-Right Zoning is getting a lot of buzz these days as a needed tool to help solve the affordable housing crisis many communities are facing. For those unfamiliar, a zoning code is considered “By-Right” if the approvals process is streamlined so that projects that comply with the zoning standards receive their approval without a discretionary review process. Housing advocates and developers rightfully claim that discretionary review processes are contributing to housing crises across the country by increasing the cost and delivery rate of housing, and often directly preventing needed housing from getting built.

Three words come to mind when Gaylon Alcaraz walks through the viaduct underpass at 95th and Jeffery, near her home on Chicago’s Southeast Side. “Despair. Damaging. Unsafe.” Inside the tunnel, garbage and leaves collect on the ground...Gaylon used to live on the North Side, in Lincoln Park, and she says the viaducts she’s seen there don’t look like this. Many of them have art on the walls — art that she thinks makes people feel safe and cared for. So she came to Curious City with a question: “Why can’t viaducts on the South Side have beautiful murals like the North Side?”

When incomes drop so precipitously, housing quickly becomes unaffordable, regardless of whether a neighborhood is declining or booming. This has nothing to do with the pace of economic development or how many white college graduates have moved into an area — it’s a simple problem of poverty. Gentrification this is not: The “g-word” refers to thriving neighborhoods where longtime residents are left behind, not stagnant neighborhoods where residents face economic desolation. The choice to describe this problem as gentrification probably reflects political sensibilities. In rich and poor areas alike, neighborhood newcomers make easy scapegoats for social troubles.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has not yet named a HUD secretary, but he has floated some potential appointees, including the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has called one plan for fair housing a “mandated social-engineering scheme.” Trump himself has also expressed disdain for many of Obama’s housing policies, especially those trying to reduce segregation, which is perhaps not surprising for a man who got his start in real estate by refusing to rent to minorities in New York.   

This report represents the culmination of the Cultural Value Project (CVP), a three-year initiative undertaken by the Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the UK into understanding the value of culture. It draws upon a body of original work made possible by the following research grants administered by the AHRC: