• Urban repair through freeway removal

    Replacing the elevated Central Freeway with a boulevard would reknit the fabric of San Francisco neighborhoods. UC Berkeley student Qingchun Li won a student merit award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards.
    San Francisco is a beacon of freeway removal, largely due to a 1989 earthquake that damaged two elevated highways—causing them to be taken down and their rights-of-way converted to boulevards. A mile-long section of the Central Freeway was demolished and rebuilt as the Octavia Boulevard, repairing...Read more

  • Anticipated ‘car-free’ development moves forward

    Culdesac in Tempe, Arizona, a model community that combines urbanism with technology, is demonstrating an untapped demand for car-free living. Opticos Design won a merit award in the Emerging Projects category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards.
    In one of the nation’s most automobile-dependent cities, a development is testing a new model of car-free living. The market is responding well: Phase one of Culdesac Tempe, due for completion by the end of 2021, is pre-leased, and more than three thousand people nationwide have expressed interest...Read more

  • A new kind of church, in a former warehouse

    Grace Midtown Church in Atlanta, Georgia, shows how underutilized industrial sites can be repurposed into community assets. Kronberg Urbanists + Architects won a merit award in the Block, Street, and Building category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards.
    Grace Midtown Church is a growing, young, nontraditional church that has reimagined both its worship space and how the church relates physically to the city. An unremarkable former warehouse in an industrial area was converted into a 1,000-seat auditorium. A parking lot was transformed to a...Read more

  • Tactical Urbanism on a citywide scale

    The urban planning response to Covid in Norfolk, Virginia, was imaginative and comprehensive. Work Program Architects, Yard & Co, and Team Better Block won a merit award in The Region: Metropolis, City, and Town category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards.
    Tactical Urbanism offered key urban design tools in 2020, when cities had to quickly repurpose public space to allow more outdoor activities and dining during the pandemic. OpenNorfolk demonstrated how to use these tools in a coordinated, citywide fashion, generating tangible benefits to a wide...Read more