• Where to begin? Target a place

    Many suburbs would like to revitalize infrastructure and assets, but they don’t know what problems to tackle first. Not knowing can lead to paralysis.
    Note: This document is one of a series of tools created for Build a Better Burb, the Hub for Great Suburban Design. The series emerged from the Build a Better Burb Sprawl Retrofit Council in Miami, Florida, in March, 2016—an event aimed at expanding transportation choice, sense of place, and...Read more

  • CNU relaunches Build a Better Burb

    After a year of work, the Build a Better Burb website has been upgraded, offering an improved platform for suburbs that are rethinking their planning and development.
    The suburbs are a big part of the movement to create human-scale, walkable places. Land outside of principle cities, the area often equated with suburbs, comprises more than 95 percent of metropolitan areas. Yet the suburbs are often left out of the discussion of people moving into urban places...Read more

  • A code transforms a commercial strip corridor

    “Thanks to skilled designers, a clear, implementable code, and a truly capable client, this plan is getting built, and well.”
    First built over 200 years ago as a toll road connecting Washington DC to greater Virginia, Columbia Pike now serves as a direct route to the Pentagon and other capital landmarks. Until recently, this Arlington, Virginia, thoroughfare was an aging commercial strip stifled by outdated zoning...Read more

  • Suburbs opt for urban streetscapes

    Some suburbs are building an entire urban downtown from scratch to provide a unique identity and appeal.
    Many suburbs are retrofitting to include walkable urbanism, but a few are building an entire urban downtown from scratch. The Fall 2016 edition of Development Magazine , published by the NAIOP, the national commercial real estate association, reports on three municipalities across the nation that...Read more