• A human-centered architecture for our time

    In The Humanists Versus the Reactionary Avant Garde, Charles Siegel illuminates the question of what progressive, contemporary architecture truly means.
    The Humanists Versus the Reactionary Avant Garde was sitting on a shelf in my office, awaiting review, for several weeks. I was busy, and in a chance conversation I told CNU co-founder Andres Duany that I didn’t know when I would find time to read it. “You have time for this book,” Duany assured me...Read more

  • An Olive Branch from the Middle East

    While the election is taking up much of the current press, the budget deficit and continually looming government shutdown still continues to be a problem. However, a proposal has been made for our nation’s capital to withstand a cost saving measure - and this one affects all of us, residents and...Read more

  • America’s Urban Future: Lessons from North of the Border

    As the US plans to meet its massive urban challenges, we believe that a comparison with Canada is particularly useful—more so than more widely discussed European models, whose relevance tend to be rather more aspirational than practical.
    Note: This article is part of a collaboration between Island Press and Public Square on a series of articles based on recently published books on subjects related to urbanism. Today is a time of crisis and opportunity for urbanism in the United States. By 2050, the United States will have to find...Read more

  • The hidden appeal of New Urbanism in Latin America

    The current economic conditions in Latin America, as well as a newly found awareness, are slowly opening doors to good city making. But there is work yet to be done.
    Over the last decade, rice paddies in the main thoroughfare connecting the Ecuadorian economic powerhouse of Guayaquil with the nearby agro industrial hub of Samborondon have transformed into gated communities of various degrees of architectural and urban quality. Located along a massive, congested...Read more