• Landmark plan guides downtown revival

    Downcity Providence Master Plan in Providence, Rhode Island, created a blueprint for downtown vitality. DPZ CoDesign and Cornish Associates won a 2025 CNU Charter and Generational Project Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category.
    In the last quarter of the 20th Century, city revival efforts were characterized by big “silver bullet” ideas, such as convention centers, aquariums, festival marketplaces, and waterfront malls. These often involved tearing down historic fabric and replacing it with lifeless streetscapes,...Read more

  • Bringing a street and public space to life

    Revitalization of Westminster Street in Providence, RI, balances development and preservation to build economic and social life downtown. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a 2025 CNU Charter Award in the Block, Street and Building category.
    Until the middle of the 20th Century, Providence’s downtown was one of the most important economic and cultural centers of the Northeast, but it suffered a series of calamities starting with a severe 1938 hurricane, followed by suburban flight and the city’s deindustrialization. While many...Read more

  • Reintroducing Missing Middle Housing to Vermont

    Vermont Homes for All Toolkit provides statewide support for Missing Middle housing. Utile, Inc. won a 2025 CNU Charter Award in The Region: Metropolis, City and Town category.
    The Vermont Homes for All Toolkit was launched in March of 2024 at a sold-out statewide summit that demonstrated widespread enthusiasm for implementation. The practical publication builds on the state’s 2020 Enabling Better Places: A Zoning Guide for Vermont Neighborhoods, created with the help of...Read more

  • A Main Street model for New York State

    Eastdale Main Street Village in Poughkeepsie, New York, establishes a new growth pattern on a low-density strip corridor. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a 2025 CNU Charter Award in The Block, Street, and Building category.
    Eastdale Main Street Village in Poughkeepsie is one of the first new urban projects of village scale and character in Upstate New York, providing a model for developers elsewhere in slow-growing parts of the state. Main Street spans State Route 44, the Dutchess Turnpike, which has been subject to...Read more