Regional and Urban Design Committee

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The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

2024 Symposium

The 2024 symposium will be held in Indianapolis, IN in November. Stay tuned for dates and location. Registration will open in July.

2023 RUDC Symposium

The RUDC Symposium, held in Washington, DC October 19-20, covered emerging trends, theories, and technologies that are shaping the future of regional and urban design. Watch the engaging highlight and speaker videos >.

  • 1.  Pimping for Amazon

    Posted 10-10-2017 09:18 AM

    Pimping for Amazon 

    The mad dash of cities across the nation to please a rich corporate suitor is as educational as it is obscene. The latter because public agencies from the state level all the way down to city departments are shamelessly offering tax dollars to one of the top value corporations owned by the richest man on earth and the company unashamedly asking for them.
    Almost any major US city imagines itself as ideal for HQ2

    Educational because the spectacle shows how completely the powers have reversed. It used to be that economic development agencies wrote the specs for sites they wanted to offer for private development. Now it is the private corporation that writes the specs. It used to be that cities looked to private developers to pay part of the cost of new development through impact fees and adequate public facility ordinances. Now a powerful corporation not only expects top notch infrastructure transit but tax credits and benefits on top. It is educational to witness how ready our representatives are to give away the shop and how eager their minions are to comply.

    As in the preparations for Roman gladiator shows, all decency and rules are shed in the thirst for blood. Cities and metro areas take their gloves off and are willing to use just about any weapon suitable to kill the competition even though they all know that what they are doing is self defeating.
    Now finesse is set aside, and we have pure unadulterated murder. The combatants have no protective covering; their entire bodies are exposed to the blows. No blow falls in vain. This is what lots of people prefer to the regular contests, and even to those which are put on by popular request. And it is obvious why. There is no helmet, no shield to repel the blade. Why have armour? Why bother with skill? (The Roman philosopher and Senator Seneca after witnessing a gladiator fight)
    It took only hours after Amazon announced their desire to find a location for their second flagship dubbed HQ2 that the first mayors, governors and development agency heads  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE





    Pimping for Amazon
    Archplanbaltimore remove preview
    Pimping for Amazon
    The mad dash of cities across the nation to please a rich corporate suitor is as educational as it is obscene. The latter because public age...
    View this on Archplanbaltimore >


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    Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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