• Built-to-last versus throwaway development

    See how pre-Revolutionary War structures compare to Walmart.
    Big box stores tend to be used up and abandoned fairly quickly. Sometimes they are repurposed, but often demolished, within a generation. Why do some other properties last and last, maintained by generation after generation, contributing to tax rolls and community wealth? Joe Minicozzi of Urban3,...Read more
  • Power Strip, Dhiru Thadani

    The Power Grid

    “We know what the appliance is…. now we need to find plugs to connect it to the existing power grids.” Christopher Alexander Since its inception, the Congress for the New Urbanism and its members have in fact been making the plugs to connect to the existing power grids. It started with placemaking...Read more

  • Root zone: Tips for healthy street trees

    This drawing offers a lot of information for the maintenance of healthy street trees, which are critical to urbanism. A rule of thumb is that tree roots will not penetrate soils compacted to greater than 85 percent. Most concrete sidewalk specs call for 95 percent compaction in order to cover worst...Read more

  • Pocket court porchview

    This is the front porch view for the Jacob's Pocket Court neighborhood, a new extension of the Village of Cheshire in Black Mountain North Carolina. The 10-foot deep porch on this cottage faces a small oval–shaped green. The watercolor rendering shows enough details to inform the architecture of...Read more