Profiles of cities
The energy transition, a great transformation to a future carbon-free energy system, is coming into view in Dubai. The pieces – the fuels, the technologies and systems – were scattered somewhat randomly around Expo City, the site of Expo 2020 (2021-22) and the UN’s Cop28 (2023). But it required …
Dubai Expo 2020 was the first world exposition to be held in the Middle East. It said something about energy. It said something, unwittingly and despite itself, about the world’s hoped-for energy transition(s)… My editor at AramcoWorld pushed me discover how ‘sustainable’ it really was, which we indeed tried to discover…
Flying in at 5 a.m., I saw why Colombo enjoys a most fortunate location. It’s with good reason that an ancient name for Sri Lanka – Lanka Dvipa – means ‘fortunate island.’ I came to Colombo to learn about its place in the world and write about its plans for the future. My article appeared in The Ceylon Chronicle | Full Text
I’ve traveled to Dubai often in recent years for conferences, research and writing on energy. I became impressed with Dubai's solar energy program and, as a curious writer, intrigued by the city itself. I wrote a feature Dubai's Planning Paradox for Planning magazine. I've also written on it's renewable energy aspirations and the DGCX.
The aspirational city in the Abu Dhabi desert continues to plan and build. It may indeed become a ‘greenprint’ for urban development if it achieves very low or zero-carbon. My editor at AramcoWorld pushed me to find metrics. I wrote about the place, the planners, the people and their ongoing efforts in Chasing Zero (see on-line).
Chicago is one of the world’s great cities but its future isn’t so certain… The 2nd annual Global Cities Forum, held downtown during three days in June, asked many questions about the world’s top cities. Our town stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants and fared pretty well. But the global economy is in constant flux…
I have enjoyed travelling in the Caucasus region and sometimes visiting the city of Baku. I met two planners there who helped me to see the rich historic layers of the city, in Baku at a Crossroads for Planning magazine.
I traveled several times to Brazil during the early 2000s and made good friends in Sâo Paulo. I became fascinated with Brazil’s great industrial city, so immense, so dense, so vast and spread out like a huge human hive. I wrote a feature-length piece Citizens Map a Megacity for Américas magazine. Later that year I was on a US State Dept. fellowship…
After visiting Milan, I went to see friend Dave Stein in Vienna and fell in love with the old imperial city. Dave, a grad school colleague now living there, knows the city and its transportation system very well. We wrote Vienna Turns Again to the East for Urban Land Europe. The article gets its title from Dave's thinking on the city's strategic position.
I visited Milan in early 2002 to see the city's many historic layers and its ongoing transformation. With help from friend and interpreter Chiara Pelizzoni, we conducted interviews with planners, developers, and academics to learn about the city's place in Lombardia, in the North Italian and European economy. I wrote Postindustrial Milan for Urban Land Europe.