• The power of an imaginative illustration

    Three decades ago, a man with a pen proposed a park in downtown Providence, showing that artists can be powerful planners.
    DPZ CoDesign conducted a charrette in downtown Providence , Rhode Island, in 1992, sponsored by the City and the Coalition for Community Development. The talented artist Charles Barrett, who passed away in 1996, worked for DPZ. As described in the recently published The Art of the New Urbanism (...Read more

  • Leon Krier’s checklist

    The late architect and urban theorist wrote a to-do list for city founders, mayors, administrators, designers, settlers, and landowners.
    Leon Krier, who died last week , had definite ideas about city design and its details, large and small. Reprinted below is Krier’s checklist for community design and implementation, written for the Prince’s Foundation (now the King’s Foundation) in 2020. The publication Walkability and Mixed-Use:...Read more

  • Competition reveals practical single-stair designs

    CNU Mid-Atlantic’s Baltimore Single-Stair Design Competition shows the value of single-stair types in mid-rise buildings on infill sites, but more work needs to be done.
    Note: The results of this competition will be presented at CNU 33 in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, June 13, at 2:30 p.m. On a sweltering Saturday evening in Downtown Baltimore, over thirty built environment enthusiasts gathered for an event dedicated to building code reform, the awards...Read more

  • Bringing a street and public space to life

    Revitalization of Westminster Street in Providence, RI, balances development and preservation to build economic and social life downtown. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a 2025 CNU Charter Award in the Block, Street and Building category.
    Until the middle of the 20th Century, Providence’s downtown was one of the most important economic and cultural centers of the Northeast, but it suffered a series of calamities starting with a severe 1938 hurricane, followed by suburban flight and the city’s deindustrialization. While many...Read more