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Most people think of urban open spaces in terms of grand parksChicagos Millennium Park or New Yorks Central Park or San Franciscos Golden Gate Park. These are our iconic parksour sublime spaces. They serve as the lungs of our cities, and they certainly steal our hearts. These spaces are not locked behind gates but are stages where our own lives play out and memories are created, full of movement and reflection and joy. There are more modest spaces in our cities, though, that are just as important to our livesthe thresholds and courtyards and pocket parks. Theyre the places where we bump into our neighbors to walk our dogs or read on a bench in an environment where nature takes over. They are often unheralded like a great Olmsted Park, but always full of potential for true placemaking to begin. My father, Edwin Smith was director of parks and recreation for the City of Eugene, Oregon and he knew this. He served for more than 30 years and was responsible for the design and development of 41 parks and greenways in and around the city. His work had a profound impact on me as a future architect. More to the point, his work and vision quietly enhanced the lives of so many people in the community as their access to parks was interwoven into their lives. Westmoreland Park is one of Eugenes centerpiece parks and is a great example. Its gentle slopes and lush lawns support stands of mature cedars and redwoods, not to mention Douglas firs, hemlocks, spruces, and the Oregon white oak. Even if you dont know all those trees by sight, you know Westmoreland Park if you live in Eugene, and you know that it offers something for almost every active resident. I think thats the importance of a well-designed spaceit invites and it responds. Living ribbon of connection Responsiveness is a word worth pausing on for a moment. Its the entire reason for designarchitectural, urban, or otherwiseand its one of the hallmarks of placemaking. My firm, MG2, recently envisioned design for an attainable housing project in Irvine, California, that was meant to respond to a specific housing challenge in a rapidly changing part of the state. It isnt a monolith. It is, instead, what we think of as a living ribbon of connectiona continuous path that links breezeways, community gardens, play areas, and shared courtyards woven throughout the residential units. It is not simply a circulation route. It is a spine, and just like our spines, everything it touches depends upon it for structure. But more importantly, this isnt just a collection of amenities. It is a social ecosystem. The layout fosters degrees of interactionprivate balconies that open into semi-private courtyards, which in turn flow into cooperative gardens and fully public gathering spaces. Residents can choose solitude, casual interaction, or spirited communal activityeach space encouraging a different rhythm of human engagement. Children play while parents share meals. Strangers become neighbors over garden beds. This is architecture as social infrastructure. To reimagine open space is not to think biggerit is to think deeper. To look between, beneath, beyond. It is to ask: How do we shape space to be responsive? How do we design for encounter, for joy, for the unplanned but meaningful moments of connection? Let us not treat the spaces between buildings as voids. Let us see them as vesselsof life, of community, of possibility. Let us design not just for shelter, but for spirit. Let us reimagine open spaces. Mitch Smith AIA, LEED AP is the CEO and chairman of MG2, an affiliate of Colliers Engineering & Design.
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E-Commerce
In an era dominated by artificial intelligence and smartphones, one of the most overlooked engines of economic growth sits quietly at the heart of every neighborhood: the public library. Gone are the days when libraries were sanctuaries reserved for only reading and research. Today, they are being reimagined as dynamic hubs for workforce development, creative sector support, and cultural exchange. Across the country, these reservoirs of knowledge are evolving into digital and physical beacons of community resilience. Local access, global reach: A case study in artist empowerment In Huntsville, where I serve as the citys first music officer, weve partnered with our public library system to develop a multifunctional creative hubwith music at its core. A primary pillar of our collaboration is Blast Music, a digital streaming platform designed to showcase local talent. Its a model other cities can and should replicate. Through the Blast program, artists are paid, promoted, and added to a curated library collectionoffering not only exposure, but bona fide industry credentials. Over 100 local artists are currently featured on the platform, and we will welcome up to 50 additional artists into the program annually. The ripple effect of Blast is real. The free service empowers local listeners to discover homegrown talent while giving musicians tools to grow their fan base and attract industry attention. Perhaps most importantly, Blast provides emerging artists with resume-worthy recognitionessential for building sustainable careers in a tough industry. But Blast isnt just about digital reachits embedded in Huntsvilles cultural DNA. From artist showcases like the Ladies of Blast event at the Orion Amphitheater, to community events like Hear to Be Seen (a portrait exhibition of Blast musicians), to stages designated exclusively for Blast artist performances at Camp to Amp, PorchFest, and more, Blast is bringing music into public spaces and cultivating civic pride. Thats the kind of community infrastructure that libraries are uniquely equipped to deliver. Theres no such thing as too much visibility, and even artists with international acclaim see value in the platform. Huntsville native Kim Tibbs, a vocalist, songwriter, Alabama Music Hall of Fame honoree and UK chart-topper, submitted her album The Science of Completion Volume I to Blastnot only for more exposure, but to mentor and support the next generation of artists in her hometown. Libraries as talent incubators Huntsville is part of a broader national trend. In cities like Chicago, Nashville, and Austin, libraries are integrating creative labs, media production studios, and music education into their core servicesfunctioning as public-sector incubators for the creative economy. As technology continues to reshape traditional jobs, libraries are well-positioned to bridge skill gaps and fuel the rise of creative economies, including the vital but often overlooked non-performance roles in the music industry. Huntsville is doubling down on this approach. Were investing millions into programs that bring interactive music technology workshops to teens at the local libraryfocusing on hands-on training in production, recording, and audio engineering. With professional equipment, studio spaces, and expert instruction, were preparing the next generation for careers both onstage and behind the scenes. Local industry is stepping up too. Hear Technologies, a global leader in sound and AV production, has been designing cutting-edge audio devices for years. Theyre now part of a dynamic team collaborating with city leaders to help develop the librarys music maker space, nurture new talent and accelerate our regions creative growth. This matters now, more than ever Libraries have always been entry points for education, employment, and exploration. But today, theyre more than just information access pointsthey are gateways to opportunity and launchpads for industries that define the future. By utilizing public space and collaborating with local talent, libraries can become platforms for economic mobility and cultural innovation. This investment isnt a feel-good gesture. Its a smart, strategic move for any city building a future that worksfor everyone. The playlist is simple: Invest in creative ecosystems, embed them in trusted community institutions like public libraries, and treat music as critical infrastructure. Matt Mandrella is music officer for the City of Huntsville, Alabama.
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E-Commerce
After spending forever floundering for a solution to a problem, an Aha moment can feel like magic. But a new study by researchers from Duke University and the University of Berlin has found that the Aha moment gives us more than temporary elation. If you have an aha! moment while learning something, it almost doubles your memory, says Roberto Cabeza, lead author of the new study, in a statement. There are few memory effects that are as powerful as this. The research was published this month in Nature Communications. What is an aha moment? The study defines an Aha experience as a moment where the solution comes to you in a sudden manner, with a strong sense of certainty and a strong positive emotion. Suddenness, certainty, and internal reward are all important parts of the process. When we have a flash of insight, our brains go through a process called representational change where our internal representations of the insight undergoes rapid reorganization and integration, helping encode it into our memory. During these moments of insight, the brain reorganizes how it sees the image, noted first author Maxi Becker. In particular, the researchers found that insights that with high certainty and positive emotion boosted activity in the amygdala and hippocampus brain structures. The more powerful the insights the more activity in the hippocampus, causing more memory retention. How was the study conducted? To test what was happening in peoples brains when they have an Aha moment, the researchers used fMRI technology to scan participants’ brains while they tried to identify a series of Moony images,images of common objects reduced to minimally detailed, two-tone black and white images. The high contrast of the images made them difficult to identify immediately, improving the odds of participants having Aha moments. After they identified each object, the participants were asked to rate how suddenly they found the solution, how positive they felt, and how certain they felt that their answer was correct. Five days later, the researchers tested the group of participants again to determine how well they remembered the Moony images that they’d previously identified. Strikingly, they found that participants remembered solutions that came to them in a burst of insight around twice as well as solutions worked out more methodically. Additionally, the researchers observed that Aha moments cause a chain reaction in our brains enhancing representative change in the brains ventral occipito-temporal cortex (a region responsible for visual processing), activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, and engaging other solution-processing brain regions. Stronger insights cause the different regions [to] communicate with each other more efficiently, says Cabeza. The data suggests that the brain has its own neural mechanism for insight, leading to improved memory.
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E-Commerce
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