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The Committee on Design (COD) was founded to promote design excellence among members of the AIA, the broader design community, and the public at large, both nationally and internationally.

2024 COD Conferences

Arkansas

April 3-7 | 21c Hotel | Bentonville and Eureka Springs - Registration is sold out.

Brazil

Thu, Oct 17 - Sat, Oct 26, 2024
Sao Paulo > Brasilia > Rio de Janerio.  Registration will open in late April.

2024 Sponsorships

Download the prospectus for Arkansas and Brazil opportunities.


2023 COD Conferences

Last year, COD held two domestic design conferences investigating The Authenticity of Place.  The first conference was held in New Orleans, LA.  View the short video of the venue tours and download the conference program book. The second conference was held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, September 21-24, 2023. Download the Minneapolis guidebook and view the conference video

For Tactical Urbanism on City Streets

  • 1.  For Tactical Urbanism on City Streets

    Posted 02-12-2016 07:05 PM

    For Tactical Urbanism on City Streets

    It was about 1977 when folks from the Department of Public Works of my Stuttgart Borough of Bad Cannstatt engaged in some tactical urbanism by nailing railroad ties to the pavement of some streets in my neighborhood. In just a few hours they had some streets converted in segments of opposing one way streets to curtail cut-through traffic, had created pinch-points to slow traffic and installed the first ever counter-flow bike lane in all of the State. Baffled residents and drivers who hadn't followed the months of public debate in the local council were consoled by the assurance that this was only a test. Should it not work out, those tiles would be removed after at the latest three months, or earlier, should something appear to be dangerous.
     
    Their experiments, though, never did lead to any out-of-the-ordinary traffic safety occurrence, and in fact, residents loved the newly more peaceful feel of the streets.  Some eight years later, almost all chicanes and ties had been turned into permanent solutions with stone curbs, planters and finally traffic signs.
     
    In 2009 New York's iconic Traffic Commissioner Janette Zadik Khan got out paint brushes and folding chairs and converted a section of Broadway at Times Square into a pedestrian precinct. In 2013 the matter was made permanent with some design help from Snohetta Architects.
     

    In a time when neither Congress nor the local city council seem to be able to get anything of significance passed.... (Click below for full article)
     
     

    Community Architect: For Tactical Urbanism on City Streets

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    Community Architect: For Tactical Urbanism on City Streets
     
    View this on Archplanbaltimore >
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    Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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    2024 HRC Taliesin West