CNU20: The New World
April 20, 2012
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CNU 20 Hot Topics:
Doing Well By Doing Good - Since 1982
Through bust and boom, New Urbanist projects outperformed their neighbors and through the recession they have held their value better. Building the New Urbanism means having a flexible, diversified portfolio that can weather the storms of the market without missing the peaks. At CNU 20, you will expand your ability to survive and thrive in the marketplace by appealing to different generations of buyers and catching up with the major trends in real estate.
Designing Place Collaboratively - Since 1993
The coming decades of planning will require responses to a myriad of concerns including economic, environment, fiscal, and social challenges. These challenges will require a long-term, coordinated response with solutions that cross disciplinary boundaries. For over 20 years, New Urbanists have been fighting alongside fellow planners and architects for holistic, interdisciplinary solutions to our most pressing problems.
The annual…
CNU 20: Rediscover, Rethink & Redefine
April 5, 2012
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The annual Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the leading venue for New Urbanist education, collaboration, and networking. CNU members come from around the world to discuss development practices and public policies, learn from recent innovative work, and advance new initiatives to transform our communities.
Norm Garrick - A Good Transportation System Minimizes Unnecessary Transportation
August 2, 2011
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Norm Garrick discusses the importance of Walk Score, the Lessons of Lewis Mumford and how a good transportation system actually minimizes unnecessary transportation.
Norm Garrick - Automobility Decreases the Efficiency of Cities
June 30, 2011
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Norman Garrick discusses what happens when you start to change your infrastructure from being pedestrian supported to auto supported. Case in point, the City of Hartford, which had at one point 15,000 parking spaces when it was a more walkable place. Today, it has 45,000 parking spaces and less jobs that it did then. To see what that means in terms of city destruction, you only have to wait till the end of the discussion to see the destruction that has on a city's soul. In plain terms, making way for automobility decreases the efficiency of cities.
Tom Low - Laying Lightly on the Land
June 28, 2011
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Tom Low of DPZ in Charlotte discusses the initial places where New Urbanists thought more sustainable infrastructure could be used. He also talks a bit about how to deal with engineers that will try to gold plate the infrastructure as well as the acceptance of more environmental principles.
Mike Lydon - Different Types of Bike Riders
June 20, 2011
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The streets have been so dangerous for so long that until recently only a certain type of cyclist was brave enough to ride them. In order to get more people to use bikes as a main transportation mode, we need to design streets and cycleways with the other riders in mind. In this interview from CNU 19 in Madison, Mike Lydon of the Street Plans Collaborative discusses the who makes up the different types of riders that ride the streets.
Norman Garrick - Street Networks Affect Safety
June 17, 2011
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Norman Garrick, CNU Board Member and professor at the University of Connecticut, has been looking at street networks for a number of years now. When living in Davis California, he noticed it was a bit safer even though there were many more pedestrians and cyclists. After more research, it became apparent that denser more connected street networks were safer. In this discussion we had at CNU 19, he discusses how street networks affect safety.
John Norquist: Cities Without Congestion Are Dead
June 10, 2011
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One of my favorite if not all out depressing CNU plenary speeches was from Robert Caro in Austin. It was a moving discussion about the impact that Robert Moses had one New York City. In Madison, we asked CNU President John Norquist about Robert Caro and the discussion turned to congestion. He states that if the USDOT wants to see a model of successful congestion mitigation, all they need to do is look up at Detroit. Check it out.
America Makeover
May 4, 2010
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American Makeover, a web series about new urbanism and a vision for post-sprawl America, has launched its first episode.
The series spotlights the harmful effects of sprawl and underlines the transformational possiblities of new urbanism and traditional neighborhood design in cities across America.
This pilot of episode on Atlanta -- Sprawlanta -- sounds the alarm on Atlanta’s suburban sprawl, warning that America’s fastest growing city is on pace to spread from coast to coast by the year 2050.
“When it was founded in 1850, Atlanta was 3.14 square miles. Today metro Atlanta is approximately 8,379 square miles. Extrapolating this exponential growth rate, Atlanta could cover the entire continental United States by mid-century," explains filmmaker John Paget.
The unique series is partially sponsored by the Notre Dame School of Architecture and The Fund for the Environment and Urban Life (
The series spotlights the harmful effects of sprawl and underlines the transformational possiblities of new urbanism and traditional neighborhood design in cities across America.
This pilot of episode on Atlanta -- Sprawlanta -- sounds the alarm on Atlanta’s suburban sprawl, warning that America’s fastest growing city is on pace to spread from coast to coast by the year 2050.
“When it was founded in 1850, Atlanta was 3.14 square miles. Today metro Atlanta is approximately 8,379 square miles. Extrapolating this exponential growth rate, Atlanta could cover the entire continental United States by mid-century," explains filmmaker John Paget.
The unique series is partially sponsored by the Notre Dame School of Architecture and The Fund for the Environment and Urban Life (
Getting Up To Speed On Designing Walkable Thoroughfares
April 27, 2010
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Earlier this month, the Institute of Transportation Engineers released its "Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach." The 229 page guideline is designed to help agencies work toward improvements in mobility choies and community character by creating and enhancing walkable communities.
