• Iconic buildings planned as gateway for urban-outdoor living

    The Montgomery Park Master Plan is transforming warehouse and industrial buildings into a mixed-use district in Portland, Oregon. Lake Flato Architects won a merit award in the Emerging Projects category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards.
    A hundred years ago, iconic warehouse and industrial buildings were constructed that would define Northwest Portland. The 10-story Montgomery Ward building—later renamed Montgomery Park—and the American Can Complex, occupy the nexus of residential neighborhoods to the south, a large industrial area...Read more

  • Code tweaks to make walkable neighborhoods legal

    The Project for Code Reform looks at Michigan municipalities to find the key changes to land-use regulations on the local level.
    CNU Project for Code Reform faculty recently met with six Michigan cities and towns, ranging in population from 2,500 to 42,000, for training workshops. The team is made up of experts in finding the straightest path to solving a municipality’s problems through targeted land-use regulatory reforms...Read more

  • The power of cute, affordable townhouses

    We need more ways to build uncomplicated affordable housing in cities and towns. These 19 th Century townhouses in Alexandria, Virginia, offer a great model. Although the townhouses have nice details, they wouldn’t be expensive to build. Each unit has little siding and few windows in the front...Read more

  • Syracuse, on White House radar, should oppose highway designation for I-81 teardown

    The replacement for Interstate 81 in the heart of Syracuse should be designed and built on the scale of a city street, giving the city an economic shot in the arm.
    An Interstate 81 that no longer goes through the heart of Syracuse, New York—instead bypassing the city on the current I-481—could be a game-changer that benefits the entire region. Accompanied by good roadway design, facilitated by key political choices, that move has the potential to make the...Read more