Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist (@UrbanCourtyard) / X

Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist

27.8K posts

Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist

@UrbanCourtyard

Courtyard Urbanist is a research and development initiative dedicated to improving US cities through family-friendly courtyard block design.

Chicago

courtyardurbanist.com

Joined May 2024

Pinned
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
May 11
The Courtyard Urbanism conversation is headed to California next month, and you are invited to join me, town founders, architects, builders, and policy experts at Edge City, in Healdsburg, for the "Environments of Tomorrow" week, June 22-27. I am delighted to talk there about
Edge City
@JoinEdgeCity
Apr 27
Article
Preview of the Environments of Tomorrow Week
A week on how to build places people actually want to live (June 22 - 27). Written by @KFishner, @timourxyz, @KatherineJneuro We are accepting applications to @EdgeEsmeralda on a rolling basis. Apply...
19K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Dec 30, 2024
Americans excel at walkable, mixed-use development when they’re designing ski resorts.
8.8M
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Dec 9, 2024
Edinburgh, Scotland, shows that when you stack apartments, join them wall-to-wall, and build them right up to the property line to form courtyard blocks ...
1.1M
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
May 30, 2025
In the suburbs, they don’t let fathers have hobbies or friends. If fathers are caught doing anything besides yard work, they are executed.
Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬
@lymanstoneky
May 28, 2025
sorry, i'm gonna go hard on this an hour a day for your hobbies basically 365 is insane. if you're doing that you should instead work more or have more children.
357K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Jul 15, 2025
The abundance we need / the abundance we have
O.W. Root
@owroot
Jul 15, 2025
Water bottle culture was a mistake
237K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Apr 19, 2025
To their credit, Barnes & Noble learned the lesson that drive-to box stores have no future.
StripMallGuy
@realEstateTrent
Apr 18, 2025
The Barnes & Noble comeback is one of the greatest stories in the history of retail. They’re expanding all over America!
1M
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Jul 23, 2025
Can’t stop thinking about the big box store that uses a facade to present itself as a fine-grained, dense, mixed-use street
1.1M
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Nov 9, 2025
If anyone is interested in understanding why so many people dislike super-tall luxury towers, you can read this publicly available paper on the topic written by Dr. Kheir Al-Kodman (Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Illinois Chicago). The paper argues that while
Katerina Dimitratos
@KDimitratos
Nov 7, 2025
I hate this building so much.
mdpi.com
The Sustainability of Tall Building Developments: A Conceptual Framework
As cities cope with rapid population growth—adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050—and grapple with expansive sprawl, politicians, planners, and architects have become increasingly interested in the...
2M
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Jul 6, 2025
My impression is that a lot of younger millennials and gen z are interested in the Neo-pastoral lifestyle , so I encourage them to do a summer as a farm hand and discover if running a dairy operation in the sticks is what they want out of life.
Valentino
@EuroValentino
Jul 5, 2025
I’m incredibly close to dropping everything and going to work on a dairy farm in the Swiss alps for the whole summer. Is this a good idea?
247K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Jul 6, 2025
Paris lapping other major metro on so many metrics. This time, having public swimming locations in its main river
Jonathan Berk
@berkie1
Jul 5, 2025
After a $1.6 billion investment and years of hard work, the Seine River, which was once heavily polluted, is now clean enough for swimming for the first time in over a century. The city has also invested in three public swimming locations. 📍 Paris 🇫🇷
Reuters
00:00
Reuters
202K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Apr 13, 2025
Replying to @Eric_Erins
Wow. Can’t believe how bad that looks.
175K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Jan 9, 2025
When LA is ready to rebuild, it should consider framing city blocks with stacked units, joined wall to wall, and built right up to the propriety line so that a courtyard block is formed.
Sukrit Ganesh 🇺🇸 🥑 🚲🛩️
@SukritGanesh
Jan 9, 2025
Much of San Francisco was completely rebuilt - buildings and infrastructure - just 5 to 6 years after the 1906 earthquake and fire completely devastated vast swaths of the city. In 2024, the planning process for a single large apartment complex or water main can take as long.
334K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Oct 13, 2024
In my dream Chicago courtyard block, I get to play euchre with my friends on a balcony while my kids run around with their friends in the courtyard playground.
266K
Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist
@UrbanCourtyard
Dec 9, 2024
Replying to @UrbanCourtyard
... you give families the "big house with a yard" (and fantastic floor plan!) without sacrificing the density needed to ...
122K