• Historic Main Street reclaims identity

    An against-the-odds comeback, launched in the Great Recession, has brought life to a waning Main Street while enhancing the historic character of Senoia, Georgia. The project won a 2020 CNU Charter Award for Historical Concepts.
    A Main Street revival in Senoia, Georgia, is an inspiring example of what is possible even during a down economy. Fifteen years ago, the town’s center was near dormant, with only eight operating businesses. A proposal to build a strip mall with a “dollar store” on the historic Main Street spurred a...Read more

  • Former high school becomes entrepreneurial center

    Bok converted an abandoned vocational high school into a beehive of affordable workspace and community activity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The project won a 2020 CNU Charter Award in the Block, Street, and Building category for Scout LTD.
    The magnificent art deco Bok, where Philadelphia high-school students learned a wide variety of trades for nearly eight decades, was a “maker-space” of its time. The former citywide vocational high school was closed in 2013 and sat vacant for two years until Scout LTD purchased the property with a...Read more

  • Small industrial city diversifies with new urban district

    The River District Implementation Plan is building a new walkable neighborhood across from downtown Elkhart, Indiana. Speck & Associates and Stantec’s Urban Places won a merit award in CNU's 2020 Charter Awards.
    An underutilized peninsula across the river from downtown is giving Elkhart, Indiana, an opportunity to diversify its economy. The city is a center of RV manufacturing—an important jobs base that is nevertheless vulnerable to shifting markets and demands. The city was set to begin revitalizing the...Read more

  • Neighborhood library elevates civic space

    The Cleveland Park Library serves as an inviting beacon of culture for a neighborhood in Washington, DC. The building won a merit award for Perkins Eastman DC in the Block, Street, and Building category of the 2020 CNU Charter Awards.
    The Cleveland Park Library is a “civic beacon” at the southern end of Cleveland Park’s main street on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC. The building, completed in 2018, is contemporary in design, yet it has a timeless quality. It replaces a 1953 facility that had outlived its usefulness. The...Read more