• SMTX Tactical Urbanism

    Improving downtown for pennies on the dollar
    For one day in June 2014, the City of San Marcos worked to re-envision downtown using "Tactical Urbanism." Workers converted two blocks of street from one-way to two-way traffic using temporary paint. An adjacent block was closed to create a farmer's market. Several "pop-up" parks were built in...Read more

  • Katrina Cottage, Gulf Coast

    The little house that could
    When Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, devastating historic communities across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, aid for the region arrived in all shapes and sizes from across the US. At CNU, over 100 members volunteered to help—culminating in a massive planning session for the coast. The first...Read more

  • Plan El Paso

    In Texas, building a healthier city and region
    The City of El Paso grew up around rail and the streetcar but, like most American cities, it was remade for the automobile and sprawled far into the countryside in the 20th Century. Now, new developments are focused on people again while the city is reoriented toward transit, walking, public places...Read more

  • Melrose Commons

    A Bronx neighborhood rises from the ashes
    Famed sportscaster Howard Cosell, covering the 1977 World Series, remarked to the nation from Yankee Stadium as a helicopter showed aerial video of smoldering buildings: "There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning." At the heart of that fire was a South Bronx area called Melrose—less...Read more