• Duany’s 25 top American cities, and why the grid is key

    Most of these cities are built on a grid, an important point, according to the CNU founder and internationally known planner.
    Andres Duany has a personal list of the 25 best American cities (or city sectors). It’s a great list if you like urbanism and you want to explore places in the US that are really worth visiting. It includes cities of all sizes, from coast to coast. You can be sure that all are excellent places to...Read more

  • The case for the return of the 3-5 story city

    Medium-height, medium-scale buildings, slightly larger than typical Missing Middle housing, are the backbone of great neighborhoods. We need to emphasize this scale more.
    Urban conversations in North America often seem trapped between competing visions. Contemporary discourse often swings between detached suburban development, low-scale missing middle housing, and high-rise intensification. An alternative lies in a form of urbanism that has shaped some of the world...Read more

  • Walkable urbanism on the Texas coast

    The towns along 30A in Walton County, Florida, have inspired many New Urbanist emulators, including Cinnamon Shore in Port Aransas, Texas. Cinnamon Shore is a series of walkable urban developments along State Highway 361 on Mustang Island and is not well known outside of the Lone Star State. “Since...Read more

  • CNU expanding database for new urbanist projects

    Amid a shift to a new website platform, CNU seeks to establish a comprehensive database of new urbanist developments to be used by academics, professionals, and students.
    New Urbanism has been improving towns, neighborhoods, and cities for more than 30 years, but its impact is often difficult to measure. This is due to the variety in scale (what does New Urbanism mean when it’s a building? A city? Half of Southwest Louisiana?) but also the lack of consistent data...Read more