• The Flower City blooms again

    As growing legions of Americans look for urban places, many will be drawn to more affordable mid-sized cities like Rochester, NY.
    Rochester, New York, continues to struggle overall, having lost population in every decade since 1950—but its downtown is booming. After collapsing by 85 percent in the last four decades of the 20th Century, downtown population has tripled since 2000—up to 6,000 people. Rochester had enormous...Read more

  • Downtown Pontiac: 'Nothing looks impossible'

    The Legacy Charrette plan includes both incremental steps to kick-start economic and cultural activity and long-term visions.
    Pontiac, Michigan, could be headed for a downtown revival, a CNU Legacy Charrette team led by DPZ Partners told citizens and officials. The keys to unlocking economic development are to transform the massive one-way Woodward Loop, also called the Wide Track, that currently sends traffic around...Read more

  • Mixed-use density in a suburban center

    Building density that supports walkable urban centers is a key strategy of new urbanists—but this goal is challenging in already built-out suburbs. Existing conditions, space constraints, zoning restrictions, and long approval processes often present obstacles. Despite those barriers, Arlington,...Read more

  • The father of Seaside’s landscape is honored

    Douglas Duany, whose ideas transformed Seaside from the beginning, was the winner of this year’s Seaside Prize.
    Three seminal events recently coincided in Seaside, Florida: The annual Seaside Prize (this year given to Douglas Duany), the annual meeting of the Florida chapter of CNU, and the 35 th anniversary of the firm that planned Seaside, Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ). Seaside itself is the project that...Read more