• New Urbanism’s quiet achievement

    New Urbanism planning principles have been incorporated into comprehensive plans all across Texas, and this has begun to have real impacts on people and places.
    I get a lot of emails from an academic website. I’m not an academic, but occasionally they alert me to interesting papers. A five-year-old thesis paper , by a masters public administration student at Texas State University, is worth exploring today for what the paper says about New Urbanism—and for...Read more

  • Changes in retail encourage walkable urban designs

    For many years, retailers resisted the architecture of street-facing storefronts, but necessity is the mother of flexibility.
    This is one of a series of ongoing Public Square articles on the market, technological, and cultural transformation of the $5 trillion retail industry—and how it relates to a continued shift toward walkable, urban living. When America switched from urban downtowns and main streets to suburban...Read more

  • Italian coastal towns: The power of public spaces

    A few simple policy steps rooted in design and public access have dramatically improved a stretch of the Adriatic coast. Similar ideas could be implemented in US towns.
    Two and half years ago I retired and my wife and I moved to Italy permanently. Following extensive research and multiple visits in previous years, we found a house and a village that perfectly suited our needs and preferences. The region we live in is called Le Marche. Although situated in the...Read more

  • Harvard to New Urbanism: A bit of long-due respect

    Review of City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present, by Alex Krieger, Harvard University Press, 2019.
    For 30 years there’s been an unwritten rule at Harvard—and many elite US universities that follow Harvard’s lead—“keep your distance from the New Urbanism.” Twenty years ago, Harvard held a series of events that were framed as debates between new urbanists and Harvard faculty and students. These...Read more