• You’re already practicing public health

    Places shape people and determine health outcomes. Those who shape the public realm are health practitioners, and this needs to be more widely understood.
    The civil engineer who specifies a twelve-foot lane instead of a ten. The architect who orients a mixed-use building toward the parking lot rather than the sidewalk. The developer who builds eighty garden apartments wrapped around surface parking— but no playground or public spaces. The planner who...Read more

  • Urbanists in the land of Walmart

    CNU is on the last day of its annual Congress, CNU 34, which is taking place in Northwest Arkansas (NWA) this year. One of the fastest-growing regions in the US, NWA's economy is driven by its status as home to major corporations, including Walmart. More than 1,200 urbanists gathered in Bentonville...Read more

  • A vision of housing, public space for Baltimore

    Madison Crescent shows how infill development can offer housing solutions in historic cities. A University of Maryland, College Park design team won a Student Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the 2026 CNU Charter Awards.
    Madison Crescent proposes a new use for a six-acre infill parcel in Baltimore that currently includes a former elementary school and community building slated for demolition. It shows how infill development in historic cities can create high-quality public space and unite diverse neighborhoods...Read more

  • Reclaiming a Main Street as a walkable center for growth

    A CNU Legacy Project shows how a historic Main Street can be reclaimed for pedestrian activity and a center for new growth that preserves the countryside in a fast-growing region, Northwest Arkansas.
    Cave Springs, Arkansas, is a City by jurisdiction but a village in physical terms, surrounded by suburbanizing countryside. It is close to the airport in Northwest Arkansas, one of the fastest-growing regions in the US, which is why Cave Springs is experiencing tremendous pressure for growth. The...Read more