The story of this Wisconsin community has much in common with many U.S. towns that are in an interesting time of transition. What sets this group apart is their willingness to embrace the unknowns of the digital future, overcome the fear of change and prepare for the unexpected. Here are three ways they are setting the bar for small cities on their way to becoming smart cities.
Read More
Metropolis’s director of design innovation, Susan Szenasy, led a panel at the Gensler-designed 500 West 2nd Street tower in Austin examining how certain experiences (both physical and digital) now drive urban design.
Read More
The smart cities conversation is almost always dominated by large metropolitan areas. This makes sense since global trends show the world is becoming increasingly urban. But that narrative leaves out the growing importance of small and mid-sized U.S. cities. The U.S. census classifies areas as either urban (50,000+ people), urban clusters (between 2,500 and 50,000 people), or rural (everything else). According to the 2010 census, there are 497 urbanized areas and 3,104 urban clusters.
Read More
From New York City to Dubai, cities across the globe are racing to exemplify the best model of what it means to be smart. Using significant capital investment, public-private-partnerships (P3s), and new internal innovation-focused positions – the fascination with becoming a smart city is at an all time high. The desire to be a smart city is actually not a new concept – the information and communication technology (ICT) approach to cities began in the early 1970s in Los Angeles and continued to increase in focus as technology has become increasingly democratized. The early days of the U.S.-focused smart cities movement has been dominated by shiny application or hardware, rather than stories of lasting sustainable change. Now that some maturing of the movement has occurred, it’s time that we move beyond the hype, recognize the more deliberate champions and outline a few meaningful steps to becoming smarter.