• Community plan builds on success of food kitchen

    A team of new urbanists design for a neighborhood in the crosshairs of gentrification, adding healthy food and affordable housing.
    Building on a successful nonprofit food kitchen, the Highland neighborhood in Gastonia, North Carolina, is planning to grow in a healthy and walkable way as gentrification pressure mounts. Located northwest of downtown, Highland is home to 5,000 mostly African-American residents. A team of new...Read more

  • Creating a mixed-use college town in an ‘edge city’

    CNU and affiliated designers visited a sprawling part of Charlotte to plan the transition of a 16-acre shopping center into a mixed-use center, with connections to a major university—UNCC. Temporary public space drives suburban retrofit.
    The challenge for University City in Charlotte is two-fold: Finding a way to humanize a classic ‘edge city’ while providing an off-campus gathering space for a major research university, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC). By focusing on the public realm first, a team of designers have...Read more

  • Assessing Poundbury at 30

    In the year of its founder’s coronation, a conference of key partners this fall will examine in detail the pioneering New Urbanist development’s many lessons.
    There is a new town in England whose achievements might draw the envy of any American planner: a beautiful walkable layout with ample provisions for walking, cycling and transit as well as the car; 35 percent permanent affordable housing, “pepper-potted” indistinguishably across the town, and not...Read more

  • A funky mix of transit-oriented development

    When you go to Charlotte, North Carolina, you are likely to wind up in the South End, a funky mix of new buildings and converted warehouse and industrial sites a mile or two south of Uptown, the city’s central business district. The area is noted for its ongoing building boom, but also forms a...Read more