Planning and Design
Miami Just the Tip of the Iceberg for Form Based Coding
When Miami, Florida adopted a SmartCode on October 22 by a 4-1 vote, an important step was taken for the global knowledge base of placemaking. This zoning reform is clearly a turning point away from the energy-intensive, environmentally-destructive, auto-centric development patterns of the 20th century. Miami 21 represents the “Miami of the 21st Century,” and…
Read MoreA Prescription for Healthy Places
The not-so-good news persists: The continuing economic woes, including long-term concerns about housing, infrastructure, and transportation policy. The complications (to put it mildly) of climate change. And the crisis in public health. It’s no wonder the whole country feels a little under the weather. Which is why we think it’s clever that famed designer/planner Dhiru…
Read MoreInfrastructure v. Economy: The Battle Continues
In the battle for pedestrian-oriented streets, it’s clear that walkability isn’t the only thing at stake. The heavy economic and environmental burden of auto-centric roads and utilities is starting to become painfully obvious. Both in scholarly research and the daily management decisions by local governments. While compact development patterns are cheaper to build, they’re also…
Read MoreEverything’s Connected: Health, Healthy Aging, Community Design
Among the most encouraging trends in Smart Growth is an emerging consensus that good community design can address a bunch of issues at once. Which makes for much more comprehensive, cost-effective strategies to match the complexity of challenges before policy-makers. Take, for instance, the agendas of separate entities concentrating exclusively on topics such as public…
Read MoreAnd Now the Rest of the Story: Stewart Brand Promotes Urbanism, Including Slums
This could be the next must-get book for Smart Growthers, New Urbanists, and lots of us who bought into the eco-techno connection decades ago. Stewart Brand, creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and author more recently of How Buildings Learn (Penguin, 1994) – which Jane Jacobs called “a classic and probably a work of genius”…
Read MoreNew Urbanist Cohousing: Another Arrow in Developers’ Quivers?
CNU 17, DENVER, CO – New Urbanists attending the 17th annual Congress of New Urbanism gathering in Denver will spend the next four days talking about alls sorts of overlapping , interconnected challenges: The uncertain economy, the implications of climate change, the impact of an aging society on land use planning, to name a few. About…
Read MoreNow What? CNU 17 Addresses the New Era Economy
The irony is unavoidable. Interest in Smart Growth and New Urbanist topics has never been higher. Check out this May 2 column in the Washington Post; or David Brooks’ opinion piece in the New York Times from May 4. Yet the economic downturn has sucked the energy out of innovative projects in both private and public sectors.…
Read More“Best Practices Guide” Debuts to Glowing Reviews
4th Edition of New Urban News Book Just Issued Here’s what got our attention: Miami architect/author/New Urbanist provocateur Steve Mouzon says the 2009 “Best Practices Guide” from the New Urban News “just might be the most useful single book on the New Urbanism I have ever seen.” (Read Steve’s complete review here). That’s hefty praise coming from…
Read MoreNext Step in Reforming Transportation Policy: T4 America’s “Blueprint”
Advocates for a different approach to transportation planning haven’t been delirious about the reluctance of the feds and DOTs to depart from business as usual when it comes to investing stimulus money. But there’s another chance. Transportation for America, a coalition of SmartGrowth-oriented organizations, is proposing a forward-looking agenda for the upcoming debate on reauthorizing…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading: Leon Krier’s “Architecture of Community”
In 1984, Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone Magazine that he had albums of unreleased songs and that one day he would “put those out because there was good material in there.” In 1998, he did just that, releasing a beautiful 4-disc set of unreleased songs. Being a long-time devotee, I was more than a little…
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