• Infill micro-housing for the homeless

    Prototypes of small, private, dignified housing with access to transportation and services address a growing homeless problem in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
    Hamilton County, including Chattanooga, has a population of about 380,000, of which about 1,000 are counted as homeless. That number has been rising since the pandemic, and many are estimated to simply need more affordable housing to make their way out of homelessness. The rest need a combination...Read more

  • 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