• New Urbanism growing through great ideas

    Revisiting the 25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism shows how the movement and world have changed in the last half decade.
    I wrote 25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism to celebrate the first quarter century of the Congress for the New Urbanism, founded in 1993. It was published as an electronic book in the fall of 2017. As I revisit this book after CNU recently celebrated its 30 th anniversary, I am struck by the low...Read more

  • Marrying affordability, good design, and preservation

    Willkommen Urban Infill in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a scattered-site revitalization of a historic area, focusing on affordable housing. Model Group, 3CDC, and GBBN won a Merit Award in the Block, Street, and Building category of the CNU 2023 Charter Awards.
    Over-the-Rhine (OTR) in Cincinnati is one of the nation’s best-known preservation stories, with reoccupied architecture in the last 15 years that rivals the finest historic districts in cities like New Orleans and Charleston—but the district has also suffered a significant loss of affordable...Read more

  • Supporting food economy and public space for working-class neighborhood

    SCLT Headquarters is an adaptive building reuse and urban plan for a working-class area in Providence, RI. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a Merit Award in the Block, Street, and Building category of the CNU 2023 Charter Awards.
    Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) was born in 1981 when Hmong refugees and Brown University graduates began growing healthy, culturally familiar food on vacant lots in south Providence, Rhode Island. SCLT now manages almost 60 urban gardens and 50 acres of suburban farmland that produce food...Read more

  • A small city rebuilds downtown with a focus on urbanism

    Hammond Downtown Master Plan has enabled the Northwest Indiana city to kick start its downtown revival. Speck & Associates and Stantec’s Urban Places won a Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the CNU 2023 Charter Awards.
    Based on the past sixty years, one would expect Hammond, Indiana, to continue shrinking and its downtown to stagnate indefinitely. But the suburb of Chicago has other factors in its favor, according to Jeff Speck, who led the design team for a recent Downtown Master Plan . A commuter rail station...Read more