• Bringing back the lost art of Main Street buildings

    Small-scale mixed-use buildings are popular in Norton Commons, a new urbanist community in Louisville; here’s the latest example.
    All over America, commercial districts are filled with small, 2- to 3-story buildings with commercial spaces on the first floor below residential units. These standard Main Street buildings, often made of brick, have been dubbed “live works” in recent decades. Live-work buildings are like mixed-use...Read more

  • Small city revival in PA

    A new urban approach yields economic benefits for small cities and towns like Phoenixville.
    Outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is known as a rural state. Less recognized are the many small urban municipalities throughout the state, with good historic architecture and streets. Many are gaining population. Phoenixville, a former industrial town about 20 miles northwest of...Read more

  • Looking to transform I-375 synergistically

    Officials should consider the connections that were in place before the highway when planning to remove a mile-long Detroit Interstate in lieu of a surface street.
    Like many highways that have appeared on CNU's Freeways Without Futures list over the last decade and a half, I-375 in Detroit remains in place yet a source of controversy. Michigan DOT is still considering taking out the mile-long Interstate near downtown and replacing it with a surface street—but...Read more

  • An adaptable zoning proposal for walkable cities

    Contemporary zoning envisions cities in a finished state—we need codes that constantly adapt to the changing urban landscape, which is the idea behind “metrocoalescence.”
    Zoning has a vice grip on the housing market across the country; we need to shift the basic logic underlying zoning to create a lasting shift in the urban housing market and to produce classical patterns of urban development. In spite of ample literature criticizing zoning and describing what good...Read more