• Adaptive reuse of extraordinary impact

    The 1907 Block in Rogers, Arkansas, catalyzed the redevelopment of downtown and established the city as a culinary hub. High Street Real Estate & Development won a 2026 CNU Charter Award in The Block, Street, and Building category.
    The 1907 Block is embedded in a vibrant downtown, the revitalization of which it helped to launch. The developers saved a historically important but dilapidated building in Rogers, Arkansas, and constructed two new, context-appropriate residential buildings. With three James Beard Foundation...Read more

  • Cute cottages fit context, landscape, and budget

    South Street Cottages in Fayetteville, Arkansas, combine quality and design efficiency to make custom infill housing affordable. Range Co. won a 2026 CNU Charter Award in The Block, Street, and Building category.
    The South Street Cottages in Fayetteville, Arkansas, deliver small-scale, high-quality urban infill. By holistically developing and designing every detail of the neighborhood ensemble—from architecture and interiors to gardens and site planning—they blend quality and efficiency on a site just over...Read more

  • District transformation starts with streets, blocks

    La Plaza District looks like many suburban commercial areas, but a new street plan would enable incremental change into a mixed-use, walkable downtown gateway.
    La Plaza District in Rogers, Arkansas, looks similar, in many ways, to a thousand other suburban commercial districts—situated at the crossroads of two arterial roads. Around the 8 th and Walnut streets intersection are large strip malls—including one that used to house the nation’s first Walmart—...Read more

  • New beach town is a model for regional growth

    Seabrook, Washington, has created a model for Transect-based town design in an economically challenged region. Seabrook Land Company and Qamar & Associates won the 2026 Charter Award Grand Prize in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category.
    Seabrook, Washington, a much-admired new beach town with a traffic-calmed coastal road running through it, has now received the highest prize for a New Urbanist project. The 588-acre town perches on three promontories overlooking the Pacific Ocean, safe from tsunamis or the potential impacts of...Read more