• To build affordably, every detail counts

    There is no silver bullet to building an affordable house—you must save money in most construction areas, while good taste compensates for a lack of luxuries. The book Building an Affordable House will get you started.
    Note: Fernando Pagés Ruiz will present his book, Building an Affordable House , on CNU's On the Park Bench on Tuesday, August 27, at 12 p.m. ET. Register here . No issue in housing is more important now than affordability, and Fernando Pagés Ruiz knows this topic inside and out from the builder's...Read more

  • Legacy Report highlights a walkable public realm

    Camp Washington, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, has tremendous potential to grow. Planners offer a blueprint for walkable development, focusing on public realm improvements like a two-step process for intersection repair.
    The final report of CNU’s Camp Washington Legacy Project in Cincinnati was delivered in early August, and it is outstanding. Legacy Projects leverage CNU’s planning and design expertise to impact the host region for the annual Congress in the long term. Four projects were initiated in the...Read more

  • Tsunami of church closings poses crisis and opportunity

    Governments, business groups, community development corporations, foundations, and designers need to recognize church closures for the urban planning and development crisis they are.
    Note: Public Square has reported on the trend of underutilized and vacant historic church sites and creative new urban design responses . Richard Reinhard, who previously served as chief of staff to the mayor of Buffalo, wrote this piece in The Buffalo News following the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo...Read more

  • Transforming LA’s sprawl: a community call to action

    Communities must support the policies and lead the discussion of solutions for transforming LA’s sprawl for high-level ideas to become a successful reality.
    Home to 3.9 million people , the city of Los Angeles is often thought of as a car-centric, sprawling city. In an effort to transform the way Angelenos travel through the city, many initiatives and plans have been set in motion, from former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “ Twenty-Eight for ‘28 ” to LA...Read more