• Re-designing Church for the 21st Century

    A creative approach moves from single-use big boxes to walkable mixed-use neighborhoods.
    Church participation has been declining in the United States over the past five decades. Hundreds of churches close every month. The closings have increased as an unprecedented percentage of young adults choose to spend their time elsewhere. But, will the trend continue? The answer is no if Dr...Read more

  • Crash diet for a freeway corridor

    Conversion to a boulevard would reduce the right-of-way of I-980 in Oakland by 75 percent, connecting neighborhoods and allowing mixed-use development where land now generates no tax revenues.
    I-980 remains a testament to the intense disapproval for freeway construction at the end of the highway-building era. Public opposition to its construction was so strong that the project was abandoned in 1971, only to be resurrected and finally completed over a decade later. Now, the excessively...Read more

  • Richards is selected for Skyway panel

    CNU President and CEO Lynn Richards was selected to join a panel to judge a design competition for transforming Buffalo’s Skyway, a segment of freeway that soars over the waterfront. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced the competition to solicit creative ideas for replacing the...Read more

  • Beyond resilience: Toward ‘antifragile’ urbanism

    Let’s embrace and empower the collective skill in producing beautiful and well-adapted habitat, which is evident throughout human history.
    Resilience is a hot topic in urbanism today—and understandably so, given the increasing prevalence of storms, floods, fires, heat waves, and other potential disruptions to urban well-being. But we might consider another level of organization beyond resilience—what has been termed “antifragility.”...Read more