Just south of Prospect Garden and just north of First College, around the art museum construction site, there’s a beautiful phenomenon of the human condition. There are sidewalks that cross this area ...

The little dirt off-shoot of the pavement, soft ground underfoot replacing hard rock. Getting to your class a little faster, wandering a little more. It is likely that everyone reading this has, at ...

Humans argue about a lot of things, but if there’s one thing we’re consistent about, it’s this: we don’t like unnecessary effort. When something feels overcomplicated, we’ll often, whether we realize ...

About ten years ago, a Michigan State University administrator asked Campus Planner Steve Troost whether the walkways around north neighborhood’s West Circle were really needed. It was an ...

Years ago, when I was a student at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, I met a staff member whose job was "continuous improvement." This job title intrigued me. At the U, as it is ...

On Valentine’s Day, consider the ways in which we’re sticking to established paths — and the places where we yearn to deviate. By Melissa Kirsch After a blizzard in New York City, a pedestrian ...