• Compact urbanism more resilient than sprawl

    We can lower our vulnerability to climate change by promoting more compact, walkable communities instead of sprawling development.
    Climate change is not just a problem of carbon in the atmosphere and its impacts. It also relates to the built environment. Because, as temperatures and sea levels have risen over the last century, we have made ourselves more vulnerable by building sprawl. Automobile-oriented development tends to...Read more

  • Conducting a climate adaptation audit

    Here’s a list of 10 steps that communities can use to evaluate risks and adapt to climate calamities, using resilient planning principles.
    How can communities plan to become more adaptable and resilient in the face of climate calamities, such as wildfires, hurricanes, drought, heat waves, and floods? One idea is to start with an audit. Using Jeff Speck’s successful 10-part “ walkability plan ” as a template, I wrote a list of steps...Read more

  • Community has it made in the shade

    Oppressive summer heat is more bearable when a walkable community is designed for shade.
    As a heat dome hovers over the eastern and southern US, the topic of heat and urbanism is especially important. Most people associate urbanism with heat islands—which make urban places hotter—but that’s not always the case. Design choices can cool down urban places and make them more comfortable...Read more

  • Block-scale urbanism adapts historic campus to climate change

    Preserving History: Assessments and Climate Adaptations at The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, MA. Union Studio Architecture & Community Design won a Merit Award in the Block, Street, and Building category of the 2025 CNU Charter Awards.
    The Preserving History project in Salem, Massachusetts, uses block-scale urbanism to adapt one of America’s historic building campuses to climate change. The House of the Seven Gables (also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion) was made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic novel of the same name...Read more