• New blocks and streets repair a Sunbelt city

    Here's how Orlando replaced a hole in the city with connective tissue.
    In the mid-1990s, the City of Orlando faced the closure of the 1,100-acre Naval Training Center, two miles from downtown. The easiest reuse option for the land would have included big box stores, an office park, and/or suburban housing pods. The easy route would have provided more of what the...Read more

  • Cultivating consensus

    The charrette process can empower citizens to agree on the location of multiple walkable centers in suburban areas.
    Note: This document is one of a series of tools created for Build a Better Burb, the Hub for Great Suburban Design. The Build a Better Burb website has been recently updated by CNU. The Problem Many US suburban governments, such as townships (each usually 36 square miles in area), are so vast that...Read more

  • New Urbanism's impact on small-to-midsize cities

    In small to mid-sized cities, the impact of New Urbanism can be dramatic.
    New Urbanism in a big city may get lost in the scale of the metropolis, although new urban street design, infill development, and regulatory practices like form-based codes have an impact. The new urban approach tends to blend in to a New York City or Chicago rather than shout “look at me.” In mid-...Read more

  • Five reasons why downtown revival is great

    Justin Fox of Montgomery, Alabama, has watched downtown return from the dead in the last quarter century. Montgomery has benefited from a form-based code and new urban planning, and, most of all, the nationwide resurgence in urban living. Fox, a Bloomburg writer, listed five reasons why this...Read more