• Grand boulevards would solve the housing crisis, Calthorpe says

    Redeveloping commercial corridors, using policies like AB 2011 in California, enables new housing at a scale big enough to eliminate the housing shortage in the US without displacement, argues a CNU founder.
    Redeveloping commercial corridors into mixed-use urban places could solve the housing crisis, according to Peter Calthorpe, CNU cofounder and urban designer with HDR. “As of right” zoning was adopted for 8 million housing units—two million “market feasible”—on thoroughfares lined with retail,...Read more

  • Vermont is bringing back missing middle housing

    The Vermont Homes for All Toolkit comprehensively promotes Missing Middle housing for more diverse and affordable living in the Green Mountain State.
    Eighteen years ago, when Lilli West got into the real estate business, she saw a need. Back then, it was short sales and foreclosures—and she grew her business at an unlikely time when real estate agents were leaving the industry left and right. Today, as the owner of Maple Leaf Realty, the largest...Read more

  • Legalizing the city and visualizing its potential

    Kingston Forward takes the art and communication of a form-based code to a new level in a historic New York State city. Dover, Kohl & Partners won a 2024 CNU Charter Award in The Region: Metropolis, City, and Town category.
    New land-use codes may transform communities but are notoriously difficult to communicate. They involve abstract concepts that nevertheless impact local health, economy, sustainability, and the built form over decades—in ways that are not always obvious to citizens or political representatives...Read more

  • The next generation of urban mechanics

    Why mayors are increasingly acting like city planners
    Over the past five years, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing 20 mayors from all around the world, as part of an open-ended inquiry into how municipal leaders have managed the concurrent crises of an all-consuming pandemic, the accelerating impacts of climate change, and an agonizing lack of...Read more