• What do ‘Market Urbanism’ and New Urbanism have in common?

    Although market urbanists like walkable urbanism, they often focus on issues that are not at the core of New Urbanism.
    My recent book on sprawl was subtitled: “ The Case for Market Urbanism .” What is Market Urbanism, and how is it similar to (and different from) New Urbanism? Of course, market urbanism is not a movement on the scale of New Urbanism. There is a market urbanist blog (marketurbanism.com), and a few...Read more

  • The beauty of 25-foot urbanism

    These photos of Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati were taken and assembled by architect Tom Low . These 4- and 5-story masonry buildings were built circa 1900 on 25-wide lots—a standard American system of platting. They all have interesting detail on the ground floor and walk-up stairs inside as well as...Read more

  • New Urbanism is far from dead—but it is evolving

    The folks who brought us walkable downtowns and transit-oriented development have a new challenge to tackle: climate change.
    New Urbanism is dead, writes Bill Fulton on the October issue of Governing . Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, says New Urbanist thinking has so thoroughly permeated the mainstream that it no longer needs a movement to champion it. Not so fast. Today,...Read more

  • Transect of incremental urbanism

    When you have a chicken and egg problem, have a chicken omelette.
    The term " missing middle " is widely used to describe small-scale, incremental housing development, but what about the commercial element that helps make a neighborhood attractive? Many experts advise that a certain number of "rooftops" are needed for commercial development, which leaves a chicken...Read more