• How a brownfield redevelopment is revitalizing city neighborhoods

    Pearl in San Antonio, a Charter Award winner, is becoming the heart of a 15-minute city.
    The Pearl Brewery redevelopment in San Antonio, Texas, has long been a great example of brownfield transformation into an urban village. The development, which won a CNU Charter Award in 2015, is sandwiched between an elevated highway and the San Antonio River. The original 20-plus-acre project has...Read more

  • Lived experience and urbanism

    The impact of urbanism on day-to-day life may be the strongest argument for change.
    I have long been wary of the term “lived experience,” as it seemed redundant. If you live through something, isn’t that an experience by definition? And isn’t all experience lived? After I heard the term applied to urbanism, however, I am coming around. Lived experience relates to day-to-day living...Read more

  • The impact of a downtown plan

    Let the ride begin: An image shows how West Palm Beach is a different place three decades after a master plan and code.
    The image above caught my eye in the Art of the New Urbanism, Volume 2 (2010-2025) . “The rendering represents an analysis of the built results of DPZ’s 1992 Downtown West Palm Beach Master Plan,” explain the AoTNU authors. “The footprints of the built/redeveloped properties appear shaded in red...Read more

  • Chautauqua-like village proposed in California

    Esmeralda Land Company has options on a former lumber mill in Cloverdale, with plans for an educational and cultural community.
    A neighborhood-scale New Urbanist development is now seeking entitlement in Cloverdale, California. The most interesting aspect about the Esmeralda development is not the design philosophy, which is in line with long-time New Urbanist practice, but rather the community “software.” The project is...Read more