• Citywide forestry plan sets a New Urban standard

    ReLeaf Cedar Rapids is a plan to restore the Iowa city’s decimated tree canopy, with a focus on equity and placemaking. Speck & Associates and Confluence won a CNU 2023 Charter Award in the Region: Metropolis, City, and Town category.
    Note: CNU and Public Square are closed the week of June 5, following a successful CNU 31 in Charlotte. Trees are such a ubiquitous part of the urban landscape that their vital role is sometimes overlooked. Nearly every New Urbanist plan makes prominent use of them, and yet the word “tree” does not...Read more

  • Nation seeks higher ground with New Urbanism

    The Higher Ground Initiative in Nauru is a plan for a Pacific island nation that is threatened by sea level rise. Metrocology and CIVIC/URBAN won a Merit Award in The Region: Metropolis, City, and Town category of the 2023 Charter Awards.
    The stakes could not be higher for The Republic of Nauru, an eight-square-mile island nation of 12,500 people in the central Pacific Ocean. The island rises 65 meters (213 feet) above sea level, its majority indigenous inhabitants descending from a 3000-year-old Micronesian culture. Much of the...Read more

  • Meet the 2023 Climate & Equity Challenge projects

    These three projects represent different and inspired approaches to addressing the pressing issues of climate and equity.
    At CNU 30 in Oklahoma City, New Urbanists launched the Climate & Equity Challenge to engage all our members, chapters, affiliates and allies to meet the most pressing issues of our time: the climate emergency and the equity imperative. The Challenge was intended as a way for our members,...Read more

  • Electric cars shouldn’t distract us from changes to the built environment

    News that mining of lithium comes up short to solve the climate crisis highlights a need for walkability and micromobility.
    Governments and car manufacturers are touting electric vehicles (EVs) as the wonder antidote to climate change. EVs will need abundant mined lithium, a key component of EV batteries. A recent report by the Climate and Community Project at the University of California, Davis, Achieving Zero...Read more