• Small industrial city diversifies with new urban district

    The River District Implementation Plan is building a new walkable neighborhood across from downtown Elkhart, Indiana. Speck & Associates and Stantec’s Urban Places won a merit award in CNU's 2020 Charter Awards.
    An underutilized peninsula across the river from downtown is giving Elkhart, Indiana, an opportunity to diversify its economy. The city is a center of RV manufacturing—an important jobs base that is nevertheless vulnerable to shifting markets and demands. The city was set to begin revitalizing the...Read more

  • Neighborhood library elevates civic space

    The Cleveland Park Library serves as an inviting beacon of culture for a neighborhood in Washington, DC. The building won a merit award for Perkins Eastman DC in the Block, Street, and Building category of the 2020 CNU Charter Awards.
    The Cleveland Park Library is a “civic beacon” at the southern end of Cleveland Park’s main street on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC. The building, completed in 2018, is contemporary in design, yet it has a timeless quality. It replaces a 1953 facility that had outlived its usefulness. The...Read more

  • Influential urbanist Robertson dies

    Jaquelin Robertson, described by The New York Times as a “passionate urbanist,” an influential academic, and one of the designers of Celebration, Florida, died on last Saturday at the age of 87. Together with Alexander Cooper, Robertson formed the architecture and urban design firm Cooper,...Read more

  • Bold plan and code map a city's future

    The Bastrop, Texas, Building Block Code uses a street grid with the goal of environmental and fiscal sustainability. The plan won a merit award for Simplecity Design in the Emerging Projects category of the 2020 CNU Charter Awards.
    The new Bastrop Building Block Code (B3) requires a street grid for new development in the growing Texas city of nearly 10,000 residents, located about 30 miles from Austin. Since B3’s adoption in November of 2019, multiple creative and innovative projects have used the code, which was recognized...Read more