• Big questions for Amazon

    Amazon chose urbanism for HQ2, but with urbanism comes responsibility.
    Earlier this month I wrote a piece about the Charter Award-winning plan for Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, that established a code and vision in 2010—enabling that area to become more walkable and urban as Amazon’s new headquarters is built. That piece analyzed half of Amazon’s East Coast HQ2...Read more

  • Pattern retrofit for resilience: An introduction

    Pattern retrofit is a necessary step to reforming dysfunctional metropolises impacted by global capital. This is part 1 of a series.
    Have you heard of the McRefugees? These are individuals in Hong Kong, whose housing options have become so costly that they are sleeping in 24-hour McDonald’s. The number of McRefugees in Hong Kong has expanded several fold in the past year. This parabolic change is a clue that something at a scale...Read more

  • Showcase your best work in the Charter Awards

    The 19th annual awards will feature a new category, "Emerging Projects," in addition to all outstanding work that fulfills the goals of the Charter of the New Urbanism.
    In 2001, when not yet ten years old, CNU established the Charter Awards to encourage and demonstrate exemplary new urbanist projects. Knowing how difficult it was to realize the Charter’s principles on the ground through actual, built projects, we cast a wide net to recognize innovations in...Read more

  • Amazon site is Charter Award winning plan

    In Arlington, Virginia, a plan and code for Crystal City entitled the new development capacity that lured Amazon—and also calls for transformation to walkable urban.
    Amazon’s long-awaited second headquarters decision was announced on Tuesday, split between Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, and Long Island City in Queens, New York. Amazon promises to bring 25,000 high-paying jobs to each location in the next 10 years. Both sites are expensive real estate,...Read more