Tag: Engagement


  • 2025 Urban Design Awards

    2025 Urban Design Awards

    Nominations for the 2025 Urban Design Awards are now open. Affectionately dubbed the “Urbies,” this Urban Design Center-led awards program aims to recognize, celebrate and champion quality urban design in Charlotte while encouraging continued community discussion around what makes for unique and great places. Over the next two weeks, residents have the opportunity to nominate

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  • Public Space in Poland: An Exploration of Third Places

    Public Space in Poland: An Exploration of Third Places

    Written by Justin Ritchey Imagine wandering through a narrow city street, rough cobblestone at your feet, colorful storefronts on either side with donuts and pastries in the windows. People are sitting outside, coffee in hand, talking with a good friend. As you approach the end of the street, it opens into a large square lined

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  • Biking Around Charlotte

    Biking Around Charlotte

    Written by Kara O’Hearn Imagine you are biking along one of the many greenway routes in Charlotte with large, lush trees offering refuge from the sun and a brambling creek at your side with kids running around, families walking side by side and others pausing to soak in the linear enclave of nature within the

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  • Building Better Cities: The Triple Bottom Line in Urban Design

    Building Better Cities: The Triple Bottom Line in Urban Design

    Written by Chad Cramer What is the Triple Bottom Line (TBL)? Decisions are often driven by a predominant metric—the bottom line. We frequently hear decisions framed with questions like: How much will it cost? How much profit will it generate? This approach can be problematic, as prioritizing economic return often comes at the expense of

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  • Hope Amongst the Rubble

    Hope Amongst the Rubble

    Opportunities to Rebuild Western North Carolina in the Face of Climate Catastrophe About the author Aspen Johnston is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Urban Design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This fall, the Urban Design Center awarded Aspen a year-long fellowship enabling them to work under the tutelage of practicing

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  • Recap: the 2024 Urban Design Awards

    Recap: the 2024 Urban Design Awards

    The City of Charlotte Urban Design Center and the UNC Charlotte David R. Ravin School of Architecture presented the city’s fourth annual Urban Design Awards, also known as the Urbies, on Thursday, November 7th in a ceremony dedicated to showcasing excellent urban design. The awards program is a yearly recognition and celebration of quality urban

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  • Studio Connections with Potions & Pixels

    Studio Connections with Potions & Pixels

    Did you know that the Urban Design Center proudly partners with Potions & Pixels to host a monthly board game night at our South End Studio?   We have held six Third Thursday Board Game Nights with over a hundred people visiting the Studio this year.  We hope you will join us for our last two

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  • The Second Annual Urban Design Awards

    The Second Annual Urban Design Awards

    On October 27th, The City of Charlotte Urban Design Center and the UNC-Charlotte School of Architecture presented the city’s second annual Urban Design Awards. Affectionally dubbed “The Urbies,” this awards program recognizes and celebrates quality urban design in Charlotte.

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  • Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum

    Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum

    …is a place of terrorism transformed into a commemorative landscape that moves your heart and then your soul.

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