• Empowering lessons for livable places

    Thanks to the Australian-American Fulbright Commission and UN-Habitat's World Urban Campaign, fundamental relationships at the heart of urban public health and livability are under scrutiny in tropical Australia.
    In The City in History , Lewis Mumford once properly characterized the essence of cities as a dynamic that unfolds between two poles of human life: "movement and settlement." Between these poles, we see the intersection of the built and natural environments, and the ongoing interaction and...Read more

  • Landscape infrastructure shapes future investment

    In Charlottesville, Virginia, 12-acre linear park incorporates stormwater systems into community spaces that allow for new development.
    The Strategic Area Investment Plan of Charlottesville, Virginia, guides the redevelopment of a former industrial stream valley into a mixed-income, mixed-use urban area that remains connected to its riparian roots. A 12-acre linear ecological park incorporates new stormwater systems while creating...Read more

  • Pedestrian village in a natural landscape

    The project inverts the usual relationship between car and human in land development.
    Swann Wynd incorporates a range of housing types and uses along an emphatically pedestrian-oriented right-of-way that links a main street and an artists’ village that are a quarter-mile apart by automobile. The pedestrian way includes sections of path, a footbridge, and a street—but mostly it is...Read more

  • Making the case for New Urbanism

    Here are some ideas on telling the story of why walkable urbanism matters—from your perspective to a particular audience.
    New Urbanism is more than design and building, it also hinges on effective communications. Revitalizing a downtown, building a mixed-use neighborhood, or reforming zoning codes, for example, call for public support and approval. How you make the case for change is unique to you, but here are some...Read more