• Growing up, not out

    Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan is reversing late 20th Century growth patterns to support walkable, mixed-use centers. The City of Memphis in collaboration with Opticos Design won a 2021 CNU Charter Award in the Metropolis, City, and Town category.
    Until Memphis 3.0 was adopted in 2019, the city had not updated its comprehensive plan for nearly 40 years. As a result, Memphis’s outdated growth model combined geographic expansion with disinvestment in many existing neighborhoods—particularly those with majority African-American population...Read more

  • A mixed-use plan for former industrial waterfront

    The Central Waterfront in San Francisco, California, is an opportunity for sustainable development. A UC-Berkeley team won a student merit award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the 2021 CNU Charter Awards.
    The San Francisco Central Waterfront plan addresses climate change, proposes the reuse of former industrial sites, and enables the development of a considerable amount of much-needed housing. The 420-acre district is connected to transit, part of an emerging development corridor along the Third...Read more

  • Accessory Commercial Units: Reintroducing retail to neighborhoods

    Accessory Commercial Units (ACUs), an affordable alternative to prime commercial space, could equitably establish retail destinations that people need in close proximity to where they live.
    Note: This is the first of a two-part series exploring Accessory Commercial Units, business spaces that attach to residential units, often in largely residential neighborhoods, and how they fit into the toolkit of Incremental Urbanism. For years in the City of Portland, Oregon, the bicycle network...Read more

  • Parklets jump-start neighborhood main street

    The 75th Street Boardwalk in Chicago, Illinois, was created to activate economic and social activity during Covid. Site design group won a 2021 CNU Charter Award in the Block, Street, and Building category.
    The 75 th Street Boardwalk is a series of temporary community built parklets and civic structures along two blocks of the main street of Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood. The parklets, located in street parking spaces on both sides of the thoroughfare, feature play structures, workout equipment,...Read more