• Pitt proves cutting-edge design and affordable housing don’t mix

    Brad Pitt violated the cardinal architectural rule since Pruitt-Igoe: Do not experiment on the poor. Others, such as Habitat for Humanity and new urbanists, were far more successful in New Orleans.
    Note: Public Square editor Robert Steuteville is on leave from late September through the last week of October, 2022. In the meantime, we are offering some popular articles from 2022 in addition to new content. ​​ If there was any doubt about the colossal failure of Make it Right in New Orleans, it...Read more

  • Building a ‘main street’ from parking lots

    The diverse Global District is the focus of a tactical event and long-term planning to promote main street character in a sector of strip malls and arterial roads.
    How do you create a community that will function as a traditional “main street” when there is no physical main street? That is the question to be addressed by a CNU Legacy Project that will take place in the first week of March in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in advance of CNU 30 in Oklahoma City. The...Read more

  • Revitalizing towns, the neglected middle ground

    With a little love and attention, towns may play a key role in settling climate migrants and balancing urban development in the 21st Century.
    Small towns are deeply imbedded in the history of many countries. Indeed, they were the founding settlements, and remain a vital part of a country’s culture. We need small towns and rural settlements just as much as we need cities. This is not an either-or proposition. Regenerating and repopulating...Read more

  • Five urban lessons from the COVID pandemic

    As we learn to live with COVID-19, it’s time to draw important lessons for city-making. We can do so at CNU 30 in Oklahoma City, and at the 58th IMCL in Paris.
    Toward the end of 2021, the Omicron variant roared onto the scene as a most unwelcome holiday guest—just as many of us thought the world was returning to something like normal. We may have forgotten about COVID, or wanted to, but it seems COVID didn’t forget about us. Thankfully, we are in a much...Read more