• 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

  • Turning a bridge into a civic amenity

    Hybrid Bridge turns utilitarian infrastructure into a compelling, multifunctional civic space. The Addis Ababa River City Research Project of Tulane’s architectural school won a Student Merit Award from the 2026 Charter Award jury.
    Hybrid Bridge proposes a multilevel, mixed-use bridge across the Upper Kebena River in the Kazanchis neighborhood of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The seven-acre academic project includes a public market, residential uses, and connections to the riverfront from the surrounding neighborhoods...Read more

  • At CNU 34, we’re standing up an aspirational transit system for Northwest Arkansas

    CNU 34 is the first Congress with two cities as venues, and we have created a bus transit system between the locations. Find out how it works.
    At CNU 34 in Northwest Arkansas, you’ll see a rapidly growing, polycentric region that is reprogramming its growth toward Charter- and transect-based urbanism. The region’s transit system will also need to reprogram, to support the denser, walkable, mixed-use growth that the region and the economy...Read more