• Garden State city gets mixed-use transit plaza

    Somerville Station brings infill, transit-oriented development that supports diverse mobility and quality public space.
    Somerville is one of many historic towns in Central New Jersey. This county seat stagnated in population for decades but has recently experienced a surge of growth, due to infill projects like Somerville Station. Somerville Station is a transit-oriented development (TOD) on a former park-and-ride...Read more

  • You can’t make a great city, without a great public realm

    A focus on the public realm is really what distinguishes new urban design from conventional suburban planning. A good definition and full understanding are important.
    New urbanists often speak of the public realm—but what is it? The public realm consists of streets, parks, and other public spaces where you can wander freely, ideally on foot. Think of the city as a series of connected outdoor rooms, large and small, bounded by buildings: That’s the public realm...Read more

  • Urban Renewal, art that packs a punch

    I was in Virginia Beach, on vacation, visiting the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, when I came across the painting. It is called, simply, Urban Renewal, circa 1960. The New York City artist Lee Loeb was known for cityscape paintings. The museum has a wealth of great art, but the content of that...Read more

  • Nansledan wins award for affordable housing design

    King Charles’s follow-up to Poundbury gets the Gindroz Award for excellence in affordable housing. Nansledan is a large new urban community on the Northwest coast of Cornwall, England.
    Nansledan is the Duchy of Cornwall’s follow-up to the world-renowned Poundbury, a mixed-use, walkable community that’s an urban extension of Newquay, a historic port. It was planned and launched under leadership of Prince Charles (now King Charles), who owned the Duchy before being crowned King. (...Read more