About the Program

Since hosting CNU VI in 1998, the Denver region has seen numerous new urbanist developments shaped by the CNU charter. CNU 17 will provide opportunities to experience how these new urbanist places live: the people, the spaces, and the buildings. CNU 17 will challenge attendees to evaluate how the CNU Charter has shaped better neighborhoods and communities and created Convenient Remedies to urban sprawl.

The deadline is now up for CNU 17's Call for Ideas. Thank you all for your idea submissions! If you live or work in Colorado and would like to help out with the Local Host Committee, please contact Michelle Pyle.

The program will consist of the following tracks:

Towards the Post Carbon Urbanism
The realities of peak oil and global climate change have raised the urgency of refining and broadening awareness of the Convenient Remedies of the New Urbanism. How does New Urbanism make sustainable living easier? How do the Convenient Remedies improve choices for where we live and work, how we get around, and where we get our food? How do we most effectively measure and convincingly broadcast what the New Urbanism achieves?

Implementing the New Urbanism
Developing and redeveloping according to the principles of the New Urbanism often diverges significantly from customary practices: market analysis, approvals, financial structures, building types, marketing, all can be quite different than those associated with conventional developments. After nearly two decades of experience, how well have new urban practices been developed? Is an alternative system emerging? Or are projects still being approached as variances from the norm?

Challenging the New Urbanism to Improve
Skepticism and misconceptions of the New Urbanism have constantly challenged us to find better ways to promote the CNU movement. Criticism from both outside and within the movement has driven constructive refinement of our techniques for making better places. What are the common myths that still challenge us? How do we expose places that claim to be New Urbanist but aren’t? How do we continue to self-critique the New Urbanism to intelligently respond to common myths and strengthen the movement by sharing lessons learned from real places?

Driving, Riding and Walking the New Urbanism
The Denver region is embarking on one of the nation’s largest public transit expansions and provides a rich setting for exploring how and greater mobility choice can support sustainable growth. But simply adding transit will not guarantee better results. This track is designed to challenge and expand the current thought and practice regarding historical perspectives and the future of US transit, how TOD location, design and type, support sustainability. Off the Tracks, evaluating the value of the bus and bike, and using New Urbanist tools, such as the transect, to organize regions around public transit.

Urbanizing the Horizontal Region: Retrofitting Suburbia
Many Western and Sunbelt cities and regions grew in sprawl patterns, with urbanism and regionalism compromised in order to accommodate the automobile. As New Urbanism is integrated into these communities, many challenges arise. This track is intended to explore implementing urbanism at the regional scale, Re-urbanizing cities, urbanizing suburbia, affirming the role of public space, integrating new buildings with existing places, and increasing density where appropriate.

Sustainable Infrastructure: Codes and other Tools that Create Value
Our existing infrastructure is in need of extensive repair. New Urbanism provides a framework for designing and wisely investing in public infrastructure that creates value, provide opportunity for economic development, broaden transportation choices. This track focuses on and Investing in Public Infrastructure that Creates Value by shifting the paradigm from simply providing a utility to creating that adds value.