The map of CNU Congresses
CNU created a map (see below for interactive version) of all of the past and upcoming Congresses. The map offers an overview at the history of CNU, the geographic range of the Congresses, and the issues that concerned the Congress attendees in years past (click on locations for details).
The first four Congresses dealt with figuring out a grand strategy from the block, street, and building, to the neighborhood, district, and corridor, to the city and region. This culminated in the signing of the Charter of the New Urbanism in 1996. The next dozen years brought amazing innovation and implementation: form-based codes, Freeways Without Futures, the Transect, transit-oriented development, new models for public housing, the polycentric city, and post-disaster recovery after Katrina.
Everything changed in 2008, when “troubled real estate markets” were a topic of the day, and then a few months later the markets came crashing down. CNU then turned to local economies, “small is beautiful,” the “missing middle,” and a leaner approach to urbanism. Maybe that was the reason why CNU switched from grand Roman numerals to simple Arabic in 2009 (CNU 17). Climate change also emerged as a major topic. By 2015, attendees dealt with the “tremendous pent-up demand for walkable, people-oriented places” both revitalizing and overheating real estate values in many city neighborhoods.
This year CNU is heading to Louisville, on the border of the South and the Midwest, in the nation’s heartland, where attendees will find out why the city “embodies the quest to blend the very best of old and new urbanism.” Thanks to University of Chicago urbanism professor Emily Talen for getting this map started.
