• The new urbanist developer King

    Charles III, who ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom late last week, may be the only world leader who has personally built a successful mixed-use, walkable town.
    “It is impossible to find another housing estate built in the past quarter century that is as richly textured, as intricate, as convincing as a whole, and which is getting better not worse with age” wrote architect Ben Pentreath in The Financial Times , of Poundbury in Dorchester, England. The...Read more

  • Revitalization begins with cloverleaf demolition plan

    In the City of South Bend, getting rid of absurdly failed highway infrastructure may be the key to revitalizing a district. The federal government is betting $2.4 million on it.
    In terms of failed urban renewal infrastructure, it would be hard to find a more absurd example than the Eddy Street cloverleafs in the Farmers Market District of South Bend, Indiana. These ramps on both sides of the St. Joseph River were completed in 1963 to carry traffic to and from a Studebaker...Read more

  • The magic of inner-block development

    The opportunities are vast to create human-scale places on the inside of urban blocks, according to a discussion on CNU's On the Park Bench.
    The most photographed street in the US is Acorn Street, in Boston, a little mid-block residential thoroughfare in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The reason why Acorn—along with similar streets like Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia—is so popular, is because of its human scale, according to architect...Read more

  • News on the most nominated ‘Freeways Without Futures’

    As freeway removal gains national recognition and funding from the federal government, it's time to look at some of our most nominated freeways for CNU’s Freeways Without Futures report and where they are today.
    Since 2008, CNU has been publishing the biannual Freeways Without Futures report. The report highlights the efforts of local campaign organizers and activists seeking to revitalize their communities by dismantling the city highways that burden them with the significant health hazards of vehicle...Read more