• Changes in retail encourage walkable urban designs

    For many years, retailers resisted the architecture of street-facing storefronts, but necessity is the mother of flexibility.
    This is one of a series of ongoing Public Square articles on the market, technological, and cultural transformation of the $5 trillion retail industry—and how it relates to a continued shift toward walkable, urban living. When America switched from urban downtowns and main streets to suburban...Read more

  • 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

  • The Charter Awards at 20: Looking back, moving forward

    The year’s awards will celebrate design that takes New Urbanism to the next level and inspires a new generation of urbanists.
    Urban planner Geoff Dyer, CNU-A, is chairing CNU’s twentieth Charter Awards jury in 2020. CNU has officially opened up the period of submissions for awards in this special year. This year, the jurors are especially looking for projects that emphasize the importance of design to New Urbanism, and...Read more

  • Why buildings need ‘eyes’

    To understand architecture and design buildings successfully, we need to acknowledge core human tendencies that secured our survival.
    As a social species, we are built to see eyes, so we look for them all the time—everywhere—without conscious awareness or control. When we find them, they grab our attention, anchoring us in space, securing us to a place. So, it’s no surprise that tour buses driving through historic Cambridge,...Read more