• The program that ‘changed everything’ for Oklahoma City

    Thirty years ago, Oklahoma City’s downtown was hurting badly, and the city’s livability and beauty were at a low ebb. A policy called MAPs transformed the city.
    Oklahoma City (OKC) is one of the few major cities with championship-level kayaking and whitewater rafting in the middle of the city. Downtown is connected to a seven-mile-long recreational riverfront via a series of manmade “river lakes.” A new urban canal links downtown to the Bricktown...Read more

  • Contemporary Vernacular: A style for everyday city life

    Some “Contemporary Vernacular” buildings try too hard to be noticed. Others are playful, elegant, and worthy contributors to the "Comic scene" in urban neighborhoods and city centers.
    This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. See Part 1 here. “Developer Chic,” “Fast Casual,” “LoMo” (for low Modernism), and “Boxy” are all epithets critical of the architectural building types and style of many recent, mixed-use residential buildings. Clearly pejorative, it needs to be asked; are the...Read more

  • Complete Streets policy designed for implementation

    With CNU’s technical help, Evansville adopted a Complete Streets ordinance that includes tight deadlines and metrics so staff can make a difference.
    The City of Evansville, Indiana, recently adopted an exceptional Complete Streets policy with the help of a CNU code audit and the support of AARP and other organizations. Complete Streets policies have been adopted by more than 1,600 jurisdictions nationwide since 2000. Such laws have tended to be...Read more

  • In praise of ‘boxy buildings’

    Five- to seven-story podium buildings are dense, mixed-use, affordable, and easily replicable. It's time to recognize a good thing and learn from the better examples.
    Despite ongoing lamentations and protestations to the contrary (just search; “boxy buildings”), this essay is an ode to a building type that owes its existence to the marriage of a structural system, a building code limitation, and a recognized value proposition that have resulted in the making of...Read more