• Placemaking is going places: 20 years of transportation-related award winners

    From transit-oriented development to Tactical Urbanism, transportation themes have resounded through the first two decades of the CNU Charter Awards.
    The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) Charter Awards, which highlight the best in urban design in the United States and around the world, have celebrated good interdisciplinary design since 2001. As the Charter Awards head into their 20th year, a reflection on some of our past awards shows how...Read more

  • Quick Build: Tactical Urbanism on steroids

    For about a quarter of typical road diet costs, semi-permanent street transformations have been successfully demonstrated in two cities.
    The economic and public safety advantages of walkable streets are manifold, and have been demonstrated time and time again . Yet well-designed thoroughfare transformations are also costly, time-consuming, and require substantial political capital. CNU wrote case studies on street transformations...Read more

  • Merging Tactical Urbanism with public works

    The City of Burlington, Vermont, has initiated an innovative, flexible streetscape improvement program that saves money and time and is more responsive to the community.
    Burlington’s interest in bike-walk issues goes back decades, at least to when Bernie Sanders was mayor, when his administration focused on the revitalization of downtown and the waterfront in the 1980s—working with Republicans and Democrats at the start of his political career. The city of 42,000...Read more

  • Great idea: Tactical urbanism

    The latest trend in urban design and planning gets them off of the paper and out of a big room, testing ideas in the real world. It is fun and hands-on, and making many converts.
    In celebration of the upcoming CNU 25.Seattle , Public Square is running the series 25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism. These ideas have been shaped by new urbanists and continue to influence cities, towns, and suburbs. The series is meant to inspire and challenge those working toward complete...Read more