URBAN DESIGN / PLANNING

It is literally against the law almost everywhere in the United States to build the kind of places that Americans themselves consider authentic and traditional. It is against the law to build places that human beings can feel good in, or afford to live in. It is against the law to build places that are worth caring about. [...] We can build Main Street and Elm Street and still park our cars. It is within our power to create places that are worthy of our affection.

- James Howard Kunstler; Home from Nowhere

glaserworks leads multi-disciplinary professional teams to design neighborhoods, streets, public spaces and the buildings that form them. We follow a passionate belief that carefully designed, compact neighborhoods that hold a healthy mix of uses, a pedestrian-friendly public realm, context sensitive buildings and well-formed open spaces create a high quality of life for their inhabitants. These neighborhoods are predictably developed and can be easily and efficiently governed.

Great placemaking is a challenging, collaborative, and complex endeavor which requires more than copying the look of something else seen somewhere else. At glaserworks we have an in-depth understanding of the fundamental issues behind creating comfortable places to live, work and shop and the open spaces that knit those places together.

We understand the science of placemaking.

Our knowledge of great mixed-use neighborhood and building design comes from the study of old and new neighborhoods, and our own experience in creating these places. We are not limited by the experience of just our own work. This knowledge helps us aid developers in generating a vision for a project that will engender support within the community and can be successfully navigated through the entitlement process. We also advise communities and governments on the adoption of entitlement processes (such as Form Based Codes) that yield positive results for all parties – a smooth way to get worthwhile places.

We understand the art of placemaking.

Whether we are designing an urban infill building or a suburban greenfield neighborhood, we employ our experiences and skills in a thoughtful manner to create places worth financing, worth building, worth buying and worth caring about.

It's part art. It's part science. It's all about placemaking.