• Harvard to New Urbanism: A bit of long-due respect

    Review of City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present, by Alex Krieger, Harvard University Press, 2019.
    For 30 years there’s been an unwritten rule at Harvard—and many elite US universities that follow Harvard’s lead—“keep your distance from the New Urbanism.” Twenty years ago, Harvard held a series of events that were framed as debates between new urbanists and Harvard faculty and students. These...Read more

  • It was the Boomers, in the cul-de-sac, with a stack of zoning laws

    It doesn't take much digging to find that generational blame for sprawl doesn’t add up and gets us no closer to a solution—for that, we need a more targeted approach.
    I read in The Atlantic’s current issue that Baby Boomers are to blame for a wide range of societal ills, notably restrictive zoning and parking regulations. Lyman Stone’s indictment, in an article bluntly titled “ Baby Boomers Ruined Everything ,” rests on “increasing frequency with which various...Read more

  • Four decades of influential, incremental urbanism

    Seaside’s influence on urban redevelopment is profound—it initiated a re-evaluation of the the civic realm in planning and city building. Lessons learned at Seaside have been applied in the revival, redevelopment, and restoration of existing communities.
    Joe Riley, who served as mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, for 40 years, told me in 1998 that every mayor should study Seaside, Florida. “It shows that the sad conventional suburban sprawl, where every development is a separate enclave, is not inevitable,” he says. Seaside is one of the most...Read more

  • Celebrating community, creating place

    A Charter Award-winning development in Louisville has challenged conventional models of retail and civic space and provided a model for how the city can grow in the pattern of its historic neighborhoods.
    The historic city of Louisville, Kentucky, (where CNU 27 is taking place this week) consolidated with all of Jefferson County in 2003. In doing so, Louisville took in much of its conventional suburban hinterlands. A new development began construction that year, now inside the city, showing how...Read more