• New Urbanism and Its Influences in the Cincinnati Region

    On May 15, new urbanists will gather in Cincinnati for CNU 32 —with the chance to check out the city’s abundant urbanism for a few days. Unlike cities like Charlotte that have built a lot of New Urbanism in the suburbs, Cincinnati is all about infill. The Queen City boasts impressive examples of...Read more

  • Successful cities know their stories

    First+Main Films and the Better Cities Film Festival are telling civic stories across America in film, with the goal of changing cities. It shows the power of storytelling in urbanism.
    Cities and towns in the US have gone through a process of “de-narration,” according to the filmmakers at First+Main Films. Communities have lost historic fabric, the storytelling capacity of local newspapers, generational continuity, and geographically cohesive families over the last five or six...Read more

  • How ‘creative placemaking’ enhances a sense of place

    Art focused on people in a community can provide a bridge between them and the built environment, activating public space.
    “Creative placemaking” requires rethinking the artist's role and relationship to art, according to Dayton Castleman, an artist based in Northwest Arkansas. Many artists have what Castleman calls a “white cube” mindset, a reference to a room in a gallery or studio with white walls, where the...Read more

  • The infrastructure of community

    Porches and sidewalks are often ignored or dismissed, but they have important roles in building community.
    There was a time when The New Urbanism was belittled as “The New Porchism” for its propensity toward old-fashioned porches in developments like Seaside, Kentlands, and Celebration. Although new urbanists went to great lengths designing (usable) porches and explaining how this architectural feature—...Read more