The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) announces the winners of its 19th annual Charter Awards, which recognize exemplary projects by local government, developers, architects, urban designers and others engaged in revitalizing and creating coherent cities, neighborhoods, and metropolitan regions. The winners not only embody and advance the principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism—they make a difference in people's lives.
The 2019 awards recognize architecture, planning, development and landscape designs that offer choices for affordable housing, a lively mix of uses, and public space in a wide variety of settings. The winners—located in 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; as well in Hong Kong, China, England, and Mexico—will be formally awarded at a ceremony at the Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky on June 14, during CNU’s annual Congress, a 4-day event where 1,500+ people discuss, debate, engage, and advance innovations and strategies in city- and town-building.
The five-member jury selected projects that show the versatility and wide applicability of New Urbanism’s principles, from the creation of Daybreak Mews in Utah, a “missing middle” development of mid-density, lower- to middle-income housing, to the Paseo Verde in Philadelphia, an affordable mixed-use, transit-oriented development; from context-sensitive planning to address growth and stem sprawl in rural Doña Ana County, New Mexico to large-scale, complex rehabilitation projects spanning many blocks and fraught civic histories in major East Coast cities; from corridor planning for a human-scaled boulevard in the suburban Midwest to the re-envisioning of a 1,000-year-old canal in Mexico City.
CNU named eight Charter Award and five Merit Award winners, three of which were recognized as Emerging Projects—theoretical or research projects that may not be immediately realizable but hold exceptional promise for showing how to apply the techniques and principles of the New Urbanism to the evolving realities of climate change, housing affordability, transportation needs, a public realm complicated by new technologies, and suburban sprawl continuing with race and income segregation. Emerging Project designations went to Charter winner Shanghai Old Town, a plan for protecting the historic, human-scaled center of the city from increasing development; and to Merit winners Geoaccounting, a data visualization tool that forecasts the economic development impacts of compact redevelopment, and Mexico City’s Canal Nacional, a resident-driven project to reclaim the 1,000-year-old canal at the heart of this busy metropolis.
The jury awarded four student projects, including a student Grand Prize to Urbanizing Chicago's Midway Plaisance by The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, Graduate Urban Design Studio. The project reimagines The Midway, Chicago’s grandest boulevard, as the center of a baroque-scale urban corridor spatially defined by new residential and mixed-use buildings, that would better serve its adjacent neighborhoods, the University of Chicago, the city as a whole, as well as having potential national significance in light of the Obama Presidential Center’s location on the boulevard.
In addition, the jury gave a special award to recognize the long-term, transformative influence of Seaside, Florida, on the New Urbanism movement, as expressed through the completion of the Phases Two and Three of the Lyceum complex, a central public space, cultural, and educational center at the heart of the community.
Regarded as the preeminent award for excellence in urban design, the CNU Charter Awards have honored a select number of winners and honorable mentions since 2001.
“For almost twenty years, the Charter Awards have been a watermark of how far New Urbanism has come,” said 2019 chair Michael J. Busha, former Executive Director of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. “Many projects this year have changed the culture of decision making at local agencies and regional planning councils. These projects encourage us all to redouble our efforts to educate and keep the pressure on key decision makers at all levels.”
“How a place is designed fundamentally shapes people’s lives,” said Lynn Richards, President and CEO of CNU. “That’s a profound responsibility, and these Charter Award-winning designers take it seriously. These projects are victories of common sense, of providing the seemingly simple building blocks for people in a community: green spaces, homes they can afford, options for work and shopping, and streets that are safe to walk on and connected to transit.”
Members of The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) help create vibrant and walkable cities, towns, and neighborhoods where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, and get around. People want to live in well-designed places that are unique and authentic. CNU’s mission is to help people build those places.
Our 2600 members are diverse global thought-leaders on design, development, policy, implementation, and activism. They work in communities across the world—from major urban centers to historic small towns. From our annual Congress to our strategic policy initiatives, CNU connects and empowers the professionals, leaders, advocates, and citizens building places where people and businesses can thrive and prosper.
For more information about the Charter Awards, contact Lisa Schamess, lschamess@cnu.org, 312-5512-7300, ext 702.
A list of all winners follows:
Charter Awards
Daybreak Mews Homes
OPTICOS DESIGN - Architect
HOLMES HOMES - Developer
Essex Crossing Phase I
DELANCEY STREET ASSOCIATES - Developer
BEYER BLINDER BELLE - Architect
DATTNER ARCHITECTS - Architect
SHOP ARCHITECTS - Architect
HANDEL ARCHITECTS - Architect
WEST 8 - Landscape Architect
Monon Boulevard Corridor
CARMEL REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION - Owner
CITY OF CARMEL DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING - Owner
SPECK & ASSOCIATES - Planner
GEHL - Urban Designer
RUNDELL ERNSTBERGER & ASSOCIATES - Landscape Architect
CROSSROAD ENGINEERS - Engineer
WHITE CONSTRUCTION, INC. - Developer
Norton Commons
TRADITIONAL TOWN, LLC - Developer
ANDRÉS DUANY, DPZ CODESIGN - Planner
MICHAEL WATKINS ARCHITECTS, LLC - Architect
SABAK, WILSON & LINGO - Engineer and Landscape Architect
PLACEMAKERS, LLC - Consultant
CITY OF LOUISVILLE - Public Agency
Upper King Street Gateway Development
ROBERT A.M. STERN ARCHITECTS - Architect
GREYSTAR - Developer
LIFESTYLE COMMUNITIES - Developer
LS3P - Associate Architect
DESIGNWORKS, LLC - Landscape Architects
EVENING POST INDUSTRIES, GREYSTAR, LIFESTYLE COMMUNITIES - Client
The Parks at Walter Reed
TORTI GALLAS URBAN, INC. - Planner, Urban Designer, Architect
HINES - Developer
URBAN ATLANTIC - Developer
TRIDEN DEVELOPMENT GROUP - Developer
EHT TRACERIES, INC. - Architectural Historian and Historic Preservation Specialist
HERITAGE LANDSCAPES, LLC - Landscape Historian
OEHME VAN SWEDEN, INC. - Landscape Architect
Plan 2040
DOÑA ANA COUNTY, NM - Client
PLACEMAKERS, LLC - Planner
DPZ CODESIGN - Consultant
HURLEY FRANKS & ASSOCIATES - Consultant
NGAGE NEW MEXICO - Consultant
CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY - Consultant
CRABTREE GROUP - Consultant
RCLCO - Consultant
ANDREW VON MAUR - Consultant
PETER SWIFT - Consultant
GEOFF DYER - Consultant
NATHAN NORRIS - Consultant
HOWARD BLACKSON - Consultant
Emerging Awards
Shanghai Old Town Masterplan (Charter Award)
SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL LLP - Planner
Geoaccounting (Merit Award)
URBAN3 LLC - Consultant
Canal Nacional (Merit Award)
C CUBICA ARQUITECTOS - Architect
DESIGN WEEK MÉXICO - Consultant
DESIGN YOUR ACTION - Planner
FUNDACIÓN LÓPEZ DE LA ROSA - Planner
RESIDENCIA SEMILLA - Team Members
GOBIERNO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO - Developer
Merit Awards
Beacon Park
LIVINGLAB - Landscape Architect
TOULOUKIAN TOULOUKIAN - Architect
DTE ENERGY - Owner
DOWNTOWN DETROIT PARTNERSHIP - Public Agency
GIFFELS WEBSTER, INC. - Engineer
PETER BASSO ASSOCIATES - MEP Consultant
ILLUMINART - Lighting Consultant
STUDIO NYL - Structural Engineer
LIQUID ASSETS - Irrigation Designer
SAROKI ARCHTECTURE - Restaurant Owner's Architect for furnishings, fixtures, and select interior finishes
HALVORSON DESIGN PARTNERSHIP - Consulting Landscape Architect
RESILIENT BUILDINGS GROUP - LEED Consultant
Paseo Verde
JONATHAN ROSE COMPANIES - Developer
ASOCIACĺON PUERTORRIQUEÑOS EN MARCHA - Owner
WRT - Architect
URBAN ENGINEERS - Engineer
DAVID CHOU AND ASSOCIATES - Engineer
CSA GROUP - Engineer
Plan Viva Laredo
ABLE CITY - Principal Firm
DOVER, KOHL & PARTNERS - Planner
SPECK & ASSOCIATES - Planner
ANGELOU ECONOMICS - Economic Development Consultant
LNV, INC. - Mobility Consultant
GALLINAR PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT - Housing Consultant
HOWLAND ENGINEERING - Engineer
GILPIN ENGINEERING - Engineer
SHERFEY ENGINEERING - Engineer
HALFF ASSOCIATES - Parks and Green Space Consultant
PDMG MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS - Public Relations
CITY OF LAREDO - Owner
LEARNTHINK MEDIA - Videographer
Student Awards
Urbanizing Chicago’s Midway Plaisance - Grand Prize
MARIE ACALIN- Student Team Member
ROGER FOREMAN - Student Team Member
PHILIP BESS - Studio Critic
THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE - Architect
Gateway 2.0: From Grey to Public - Charter Award
CHANG XU- Student Urban Designer
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN - Architect
JOHN G. ELLIS - Advisor
CHRISTOPHER CALOTT - Advisor
HARRISON S. FRAKER - Advisor
ELIZABETH MACDONALD - Advisor
STEPHAN PELLEGRINI - Advisor
ARTI HARCHEKAR - Advisor
El Nexo Martín Peña
ANDREWS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN - Architect
STUDENTS OF THE 2017 URBAN DESIGN STUDIO - Architect
GRUPO DE LAS OCHO COMUNIDADES ALEDAÑAS AL CAÑO MARTĺN PEÑA - Client
ENLACE DEL CAÑO MARTĺN PEÑA - Client
ANDREW VON MAUR - Studio Critic
Towards Community Building in Winson Green
JUDSON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE - Architect
STUDENTS OF THE ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM STUDIO - Architect
CHRISTOPHER C. MILLER, PH.D - Studio Critic
Special Award
Completion of the Lyceum at Seaside
DHIRU A. THADANI, THADANI ARCHITECTS + URBANISTS - Architect
SEASIDE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION - Client
CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ - Architectural Designer
ANDREW KRIZMAN II - Architectural Designer
MARC GAZDA - Architectural Intern
LAUREN SOMMERVILLE - Architectural Intern
MARQUES KING - Architectural Intern
FLETCHER ISACKS - Drone Photography
DAVE SANDERS CONSTRUCTION - Contractor
ROBERT AND DARYL DAVIS - Town Founders
ANDRÉS DUANY and ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK, DPZ CoDESIGN - Town Planners
DOUGLAS DUANY - Landscape Architect
LÉON KRIER - Design Consultant
Photo: Las Cruces, New Mexico, part of Plan 2040 for Doña Ana County. 2019 Charter Award Winner: PlaceMakers, LLC.