New urbanism
Encyclopedia
New Urbanism is an urban design
movement, which promotes walkable
neighborhoods that contain a range of housing
and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development
, urban planning
, and municipal land-use strategies.
New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards that were prominent until the rise of the automobile
in the mid-20th century; it encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development
(TOD). It is also closely related to regionalism, environmentalism
and the broader concept of smart growth
. The movement also includes a more pedestrian-oriented variant known as New Pedestrianism
, which has its origins in a 1929 planned community
in Radburn, New Jersey
.
The organizing body for New Urbanism is the Congress for the New Urbanism, founded in 1993. Its foundational text is the Charter of the New Urbanism, which says:
New Urbanists support regional planning
for open space, context-appropriate architecture
and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in suburban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation
, safe streets, green building
, and the re-development of brownfield land
.
the reach of the city extended outward along transit lines, allowing for the growth of new pedestrian communities such as streetcar suburb
s. But with the advent of cheap automobiles and favorable government policies, attention began to shift away from cities and towards ways of growth more focused on the needs of the car. Specifically, after World War II urban planning
largely centered around the use of municipal zoning
ordinances to segregate residential from commercial and industrial development, and focused on the construction of low density single family detached houses as the preferred housing option for the growing middle class. The physical separation of where people lived from where they worked, shopped and frequently spend their recreational time, together with low housing density, which often drastically reduced population density relative to historical norms, made automobiles indispensable for efficient transportation and contributed to the emergence of a culture of automobile dependency
.
This new system of development, with its rigorous separation of uses, became known as "conventional suburban development" or pejoratively as urban sprawl
, arose after World War II
. The majority of U.S. citizens now live in suburb
an communities built in the last fifty years, and automobile use per capita has soared.
Although New Urbanism as an organized movement would only arise later, a number of activists and thinkers soon began to criticize the modernist planning techniques being put into practice. Social philosopher and historian Lewis Mumford
criticized the "anti-urban" development of post-war America. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
, written by Jane Jacobs
in the early 1960s, called for planners to reconsider the single-use housing projects, large car-dependent thoroughfares, and segregated commercial centers that had become the "norm."
Rooted in these early dissenters, New Urbanism emerged in the 1970s and 80s with the urban visions and theoretical models for the reconstruction of the "European" city proposed by architect Leon Krier
, and the "pattern language" theories of Christopher Alexander
.
In 1991, the Local Government Commission
, a private nonprofit group in Sacramento, California
, invited architects Peter Calthorpe
, Michael Corbett
, Andrés Duany
, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Daniel Solomon to develop a set of community principles for land use planning. Named the Ahwahnee Principles (after Yosemite National Park
's Ahwahnee Hotel
), the commission presented the principles to about one hundred government officials in the fall of 1991, at its first Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials.
Calthorpe, Duany, Moule, Plater-Zyberk, Polyzoides, and Solomon founded the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993. The CNU has grown to more than 3,000 members, and is the leading international organization promoting New Urbanist design principles. It holds annual Congresses in various U.S. cities.
New Urbanism is a broad movement that spans a number of different disciplines and geographic scales. And while the conventional approach to growth remains dominant, New Urbanist principles have become increasingly influential in the fields of planning, architecture, and public policy.
According to husband-and-wife town planners Andrés Duany
and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, they observed mixed-use streetscapes with corner shops, front porches, and a diversity of well-crafted housing while living in one of New Haven's Victorian
neighborhoods.
, has adopted the most ambitious New Urbanist-based zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city.
More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S. following New Urbanist principles are planned or under construction. Hundreds of new, small-scale, urban and suburban infill projects are under way to reestablish walkable streets and blocks. In Maryland and several other states, New Urbanist principles are an integral part of smart growth
legislation.
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) adopted the principles of the New Urbanism in its multi-billion dollar program to rebuild public housing projects nationwide. New Urbanists have planned and developed hundreds of projects in infill locations. Most were driven by the private sector, but many, including HUD projects, used public money.
in Starkville, Mississippi
, was the first New Urbanist development, begun in 1968 long before the New Urbanism movement was organized. The District borders Mississippi State University, and consists mostly of residential rental units for college students along with restaurants, bars and retail. The Cotton District got its name because it is built in the vicinity of an old cotton mill.
, the first fully New Urbanist town, began development in 1981 on eighty acres (324,000 m²) of Florida Panhandle
coastline. It was featured on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were completed, and has become internationally famous for its architecture, and the quality of its streets and public spaces.
Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the movie The Truman Show
. Lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million dollars, and some houses top $5 million.
in Denver, Colorado
, closed in 1995, is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises
. Stapleton is expected to be home to at least 30,000 residents, six schools and 2 million square feet (180,000 m²) of retail. Construction began in 2001. Northfield Stapleton
, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.
, as part of a new master plan, created new regulations called the Unified Development Code (UDC), largely influenced by New Urbanism. One feature of the UDC is six unique land development patterns that can be applied to certain districts: Conservation Development, Commercial Center Development, Office or Institutional Campus Development, Commercial Retrofit Development, Tradition Neighborhood Development, Transit Oriented Development. Each district has specific standards and design regulation. The six development patterns were created to reflect existing development patterns.
. Construction started in 2001. Mountain House will consist of 12 villages, each with its own elementary school, park, and commercial area. In addition, a future train station
, transit center and bus system are planned for Mountain House.
, New Mexico—the largest New Urbanist project in the United States—was designed by architect Peter Calthorpe
, and is being developed by Forest City Enterprises
. Mesa del Sol may take five decades to reach full build-out, at which time it should have 38,000 residential units, housing a population of 100,000; a 1400 acres (5.7 km²) industrial office park; four town centers; an urban center; and a downtown
that would provide a twin city
within Albuquerque.
, is a 2,600 household (1700 acres (6.9 km²)) development of regional impact southwest of the city of Gainesville, within Alachua County. Haile Village Center is a traditional neighborhood center within the development. It was originally started in 1978 and completed in 2007. In addition to the 2,600 homes the neighborhood consists of two merchant centers (one a New England narrow street village and the other a chain grocery strip mall). There are also two public elementary schools and an 18-hole golf course.
unveiled its 5,000 acre (20 km²) town of Celebration
, near Orlando, Florida. Celebration opened its downtown in October 1996, while Seaside's downtown was still mostly unbuilt. Disney shuns the label New Urbanism, calling Celebration simply a "town."
Celebration's Downtown has become one of the area's most popular tourist destinations making the community a showcase for New Urbanism as a prime example of the creation of a "sense of place".
has spurred transit-oriented development. In Jersey City
, two project are planned to transform brownfield sites, both of which have required remediation of toxic waste
by previous owners. Bayfront, once site of a Honeywell
plant is a 100 acre (0.404686 km²) site on the Hackensack River
, and is nearby the planned West Campus of New Jersey City University
. Canal Crossing
, named for the former Morris Canal
, was once partially owned by PPG Industries
, and is a 117 acre (0.47348262 km²) site west of Liberty State Park
.
in New Jersey
covers approximately 21.61 square miles (56 km²) and has made farmland preservation a priority since the 1970s. Chesterfield has permanently preserved more than 7000 acres (28.3 km²) of farmland through state and county programs and a township-wide transfer of development credits program that directs future growth to a designated "receiving area" known as Old York Village. Old York Village is a neo-traditional, new urbanism town on 560 acres (2.3 km²) incorporating a variety of housing types, neighborhood commercial facilities, a new elementary school, civic uses, and active and passive open space areas with preserved agricultural land surrounding the planned village. Construction began in the early 2000s and a significant percentage of the community is now complete. Old York Village was the winner of the American Planning Association National Outstanding Planning Award in 2004.
movement in Europe. They both occurred at similar times and share many of the same principles although urban villages has an emphasis on traditional city planning. In Europe many brown-field sites have been redeveloped since the 1980s following the models of the traditional city neighbourhoods rather than Modernist models. One well-publicized example is Poundbury
in England, a suburban extension to the town of Dorchester, which was built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall
under the overview of Prince Charles. The original masterplan was designed by Leon Krier
. A report carried out after the first phase of construction found a high degree of satisfaction by residents, although the aspirations to reduce car dependency had not been successful. Rising house prices and a perceived premium have made the open market housing unaffordable for many local people.
The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.), formed in 2003, shares many of the same aims as the U.S.'s New Urbanists. C.E.U.'s Charter is a development of the Congress for the New Urbanism Charter revised and reorganised to relate better to European conditions. An Australian organisation, Australian Council for New Urbanism has since 2001 run conferences and events to promote New Urbanism in that country. A New Zealand Urban Design Protocol
was created by the Ministry for the Environment in 2005.
There are many developments around the world that follow New Urbanist principles to a greater or lesser extent:
There are several such developments in South Africa. The most notable is Melrose Arch in Johannesburg
. The first development in the Eastern Cape, one of the lesser known provinces in the country, is located in East London. The development, announced in 2007, comprises 30 hectares. It is made up of three apartment complexes together with over 30 residential sites as well as 20,000 sq m of residential and office space. The development is valued at over R2 billion ($250 million).
The primary organization promoting the New Urbanism in the United States is the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). The Congress has met annually since 1993 when they held their first meeting in Alexandria, Virginia
, with approximately 100 attendees. By 2008 the Congress was drawing 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the annual meetings. The Congress began forming local and regional chapters circa 2004 with the founding of the New England and Florida Chapters. By 2009 there were 12 official chapters and interest groups for 11 more.
While the CNU has international participation, sister organizations have been formed in other areas of the world including the Council for European Urbanism (CEU), the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU) and the Australian Council for the New Urbanism.
By 2002 chapters of Students for the New Urbanism began appearing at universities including the Savannah College of Art and Design
, University of Georgia
, University of Notre Dame
, and the University of Miami
. In 2003, a group of younger professionals and students met at the 11th Congress in Washington, D.C. and began developing a "Manifesto of the Next Generation of New Urbanists". The Next Generation of New Urbanists held their first major session the following year at the 12th meeting of the CNU in Chicago in 2004. The group has continued meeting annually as of 2009 with a focus on young professionals, students, new member issues, and ensuring the flow of fresh ideas and diverse viewpoints within the New Urbanism and the CNU. Spinoff projects of the New Generation of the New Urbanists include the Living Urbanism publication first published in 2008.
The CNU has spawned publications and research groups. Publications include the New Urban News and the New Town Paper. Research groups have formed independent nonprofits to research individual topics such as the Form-Based Codes Institute, The National Charrette Institute and the Center for Applied Transect Studies.
In the United Kingdom
New Urbanist and European urbanism principles are practised and taught by the The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. Other organisations promote New Urbanism as part of their remit, such as INTBAU, A Vision of Europe, and others.
The CNU and other national organizations have also formed partnerships with like-minded groups. Organizations under the banner of Smart Growth
also often work with the Congress for the New Urbanism. In addition the CNU has formed partnerships on specific projects such as working with the [United States Green Building Council] and the Natural Resources Defense Council
to develop the LEED
for Neighborhood Development standards and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers
to develop a Context Sensitive Solutions
(CSS) Design manual.
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
argues that the depletion of oil will result in the demise of the sprawl-type development. New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism, a feature length 2008 documentary about urban designer Michael E. Arth
, explains the principles of his New Pedestrianism
, a more ecological and pedestrian-oriented version of New Urbanism. The film also gives a brief history of New Urbanism, and chronicles the rebuilding of an inner city slum into a model of New Urbanism.
. In an interview in Reason
, a libertarian
magazine, professor Peter Gordon, a professor of Urban Planning from University of Southern California
, spoke out in favor of suburbanization and criticized New Urbanism as ignoring consumer preference and the free market, claiming that cities have moved towards car-oriented development because that is what people want.
Critics claim that the effectiveness of the New Urbanist solution of mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence. However, numerous studies by independent think tanks support the idea of addressing poverty through mixed-income developments, because these developments facilitate the bridging of social capital, and thus provide for a higher shared quality of life across socioeconomic cleavages. The argument that New Urbanism produces diversity has been challenged from findings from one community in Canada.
The New Urbanist preference for 'permeable' street grids has been criticised on the grounds that it gives private motor vehicles an advantage over walking, cycling and public transport. The transport performance of some New Urbanist developments, such as Poundbury
, has been disappointing, with surveys revealing high levels of car use. The alternative view, termed 'filtered permeability' (see Permeability (spatial and transport planning)
) is that, to give pedestrians and cyclists a time and convenience advantage, they need to be separated from motor vehicles in places.
A forthcoming rating system for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND
, being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism, should help to quantify the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design. New Urbanist and board member of CNU, Doug Farr
has taken a step further and coined Sustainable Urbanism, which combines New Urbanism and LEED-ND to create walkable, transit-served urbanism with high performance buildings and infrastructure.
New Urbanism has been criticized for being a form of centrally-planned, large-scale development, "instead of allowing the initiative for construction to be taken by the final users themselves". It has been criticized for asserting universal principles of design instead of attending to local conditions.
Urban design
Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has...
movement, which promotes walkable
Walkability
Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has many health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian right-of-ways, traffic and road conditions,...
neighborhoods that contain a range of housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
, urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
, and municipal land-use strategies.
New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards that were prominent until the rise of the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
in the mid-20th century; it encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development
Transit-oriented development
A transit-oriented development is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership...
(TOD). It is also closely related to regionalism, environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
and the broader concept of smart growth
Smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
. The movement also includes a more pedestrian-oriented variant known as New Pedestrianism
New pedestrianism
New Pedestrianism is a more idealistic variation of New Urbanism in urban planning theory, founded in 1999 by Michael E. Arth, an American artist, urban/home/landscape designer, futurist, and author...
, which has its origins in a 1929 planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
in Radburn, New Jersey
Radburn, New Jersey
Radburn is an unincorporated planned community located within Fair Lawn, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.Radburn was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age"...
.
New Urbanists support regional planning
Regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. The related field of urban planning deals with the specific issues of city planning...
for open space, context-appropriate architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in suburban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
, safe streets, green building
Green building
Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...
, and the re-development of brownfield land
Brownfield land
Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations. Cf. Waste...
.
Background
Until the mid 20th century, cities were generally organized into and developed around mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. For most of human history this meant a city that was entirely walkable, although with the development of mass transitPublic transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
the reach of the city extended outward along transit lines, allowing for the growth of new pedestrian communities such as streetcar suburb
Streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Early suburbs were served by horsecars, but by the late 19th century cable cars and electric streetcars, or trams, were used, allowing...
s. But with the advent of cheap automobiles and favorable government policies, attention began to shift away from cities and towards ways of growth more focused on the needs of the car. Specifically, after World War II urban planning
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
largely centered around the use of municipal zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
ordinances to segregate residential from commercial and industrial development, and focused on the construction of low density single family detached houses as the preferred housing option for the growing middle class. The physical separation of where people lived from where they worked, shopped and frequently spend their recreational time, together with low housing density, which often drastically reduced population density relative to historical norms, made automobiles indispensable for efficient transportation and contributed to the emergence of a culture of automobile dependency
Automobile dependency
Automobile dependency is a term coined by Professors Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy to capture the predicament of most cities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, large cities in Europe....
.
This new system of development, with its rigorous separation of uses, became known as "conventional suburban development" or pejoratively as urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
, arose after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The majority of U.S. citizens now live in suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an communities built in the last fifty years, and automobile use per capita has soared.
Although New Urbanism as an organized movement would only arise later, a number of activists and thinkers soon began to criticize the modernist planning techniques being put into practice. Social philosopher and historian Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
criticized the "anti-urban" development of post-war America. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century...
, written by Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
in the early 1960s, called for planners to reconsider the single-use housing projects, large car-dependent thoroughfares, and segregated commercial centers that had become the "norm."
Rooted in these early dissenters, New Urbanism emerged in the 1970s and 80s with the urban visions and theoretical models for the reconstruction of the "European" city proposed by architect Leon Krier
Léon Krier
Léon Krier is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. From the late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners...
, and the "pattern language" theories of Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
.
In 1991, the Local Government Commission
Local Government Commission (Sacramento, California)
The Local Government Commission is a private, non-profit organization in Sacramento, California. Its website says it: "provides inspiration, technical assistance, and networking to local elected officials and other dedicated community leaders who are working to create healthy, walkable, and...
, a private nonprofit group in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, invited architects Peter Calthorpe
Peter Calthorpe
Peter Calthorpe is a San Francisco-based architect, urban designer and urban planner. He is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago-based advocacy group formed in 1992 that promotes sustainable building practices.-Biography:...
, Michael Corbett
Michael Corbett
Michael Corbett may refer to:*Michael Corbett , former ice hockey player in the National Hockey League*Mike Corbett , fictional character from Power Rangers*Michael Corbett , Chief Justice of South Africa...
, Andrés Duany
Andrés Duany
Andrés Duany is an American architect and urban planner.Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960. He attended The Choate School and received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University...
, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk is an American architect and urban planner of Polish aristocratic roots based in Miami, Florida...
, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Daniel Solomon to develop a set of community principles for land use planning. Named the Ahwahnee Principles (after Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
's Ahwahnee Hotel
Ahwahnee Hotel
The Ahwahnee Hotel is a destination hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, constructed from stone, concrete, wood and glass, which opened in 1927...
), the commission presented the principles to about one hundred government officials in the fall of 1991, at its first Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials.
Calthorpe, Duany, Moule, Plater-Zyberk, Polyzoides, and Solomon founded the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993. The CNU has grown to more than 3,000 members, and is the leading international organization promoting New Urbanist design principles. It holds annual Congresses in various U.S. cities.
New Urbanism is a broad movement that spans a number of different disciplines and geographic scales. And while the conventional approach to growth remains dominant, New Urbanist principles have become increasingly influential in the fields of planning, architecture, and public policy.
Defining elements
Andrés Duany
Andrés Duany is an American architect and urban planner.Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960. He attended The Choate School and received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University...
and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk is an American architect and urban planner of Polish aristocratic roots based in Miami, Florida...
, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, they observed mixed-use streetscapes with corner shops, front porches, and a diversity of well-crafted housing while living in one of New Haven's Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
neighborhoods.
- The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at this center.
- Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly 0.25 mi (1,320 ft; 0.402335 km).
- There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouseTerraced houseIn architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
s, and apartments — so that younger and older people, singleSingle (relationship)In legal definitions for interpersonal status, a single person is someone who is not in a relationship or is "unmarried". If a marriage is annulled, however, or it is found to have been void ab initio , and assuming the person was not married previously, that individual is single, rather than...
s and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live. - At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
- A small ancillary building or garage apartmentGarage apartmentA garage apartment is an apartment built within the walls of, or on top of, the garage of a house. The garage may be attached or a separate building from the main house, but will have a separate entrance and may or may not have a communicating door to the main house...
is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, an office or craft workshop). - An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home.
- There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling — not more than a tenth of a mile away.
- Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
- The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
- Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
- Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
- Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.
- The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.
United States
New Urbanism is having a growing influence on how and where metropolitan regions choose to grow. At least fourteen large-scale planning initiatives are based on the principles of linking transportation and land-use policies, and using the neighborhood as the fundamental building block of a region. Miami, FloridaMiami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, has adopted the most ambitious New Urbanist-based zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city.
More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S. following New Urbanist principles are planned or under construction. Hundreds of new, small-scale, urban and suburban infill projects are under way to reestablish walkable streets and blocks. In Maryland and several other states, New Urbanist principles are an integral part of smart growth
Smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
legislation.
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) adopted the principles of the New Urbanism in its multi-billion dollar program to rebuild public housing projects nationwide. New Urbanists have planned and developed hundreds of projects in infill locations. Most were driven by the private sector, but many, including HUD projects, used public money.
The Cotton District
The Cotton DistrictThe Cotton District
The Cotton District is a community located in Starkville, Mississippi and was the first new urbanism development in the world. It was founded by Dan Camp, who is the developer, owner and property manager of much of the area....
in Starkville, Mississippi
Starkville, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 851.4 people per square mile . There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 396.7 per square mile...
, was the first New Urbanist development, begun in 1968 long before the New Urbanism movement was organized. The District borders Mississippi State University, and consists mostly of residential rental units for college students along with restaurants, bars and retail. The Cotton District got its name because it is built in the vicinity of an old cotton mill.
Seaside
Seaside, FloridaSeaside, Florida
Seaside is an unincorporated master-planned community on the Florida panhandle in Walton County, between Panama City Beach and Destin. The town has become the topic of slide lectures in architectural schools and in housing-industry magazines, and is visited by design professionals from all over the...
, the first fully New Urbanist town, began development in 1981 on eighty acres (324,000 m²) of Florida Panhandle
Florida Panhandle
The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide , lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is...
coastline. It was featured on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were completed, and has become internationally famous for its architecture, and the quality of its streets and public spaces.
Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the movie The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
. Lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million dollars, and some houses top $5 million.
Stapleton
The site of the former Stapleton International AirportStapleton International Airport
Stapleton International Airport was Denver, Colorado's primary airport from 1929 to 1995. At different times it served as a hub for TWA, People Express, Frontier Airlines and Western Airlines as well as a hub for Continental Airlines and United Airlines at the time of its closure.In 1995 Stapleton...
in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, closed in 1995, is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises is a $9-billion diversified real estate management and development company based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Its portfolio includes interests in retail centers, apartment communities, office buildings and mixed-use projects in the U.S...
. Stapleton is expected to be home to at least 30,000 residents, six schools and 2 million square feet (180,000 m²) of retail. Construction began in 2001. Northfield Stapleton
Northfield Stapleton
Northfield Stapleton is an open-air, retail town center located at the Stapleton International Airport redevelopment in Denver, Colorado, United States. It is owned and operated by Forest City Enterprises....
, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.
San Antonio
In 1997 San Antonio, TexasSan Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, as part of a new master plan, created new regulations called the Unified Development Code (UDC), largely influenced by New Urbanism. One feature of the UDC is six unique land development patterns that can be applied to certain districts: Conservation Development, Commercial Center Development, Office or Institutional Campus Development, Commercial Retrofit Development, Tradition Neighborhood Development, Transit Oriented Development. Each district has specific standards and design regulation. The six development patterns were created to reflect existing development patterns.
Mountain House
Mountain House, one of the latest New Urbanist projects in the United States, is a new town located near Tracy, CaliforniaTracy, California
Tracy is the second most populated city in San Joaquin County, California, United States and an exurb of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 82,922 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. Construction started in 2001. Mountain House will consist of 12 villages, each with its own elementary school, park, and commercial area. In addition, a future train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
, transit center and bus system are planned for Mountain House.
Mesa del Sol
Mesa del SolMesa del Sol
Mesa del Sol is a proposed mixed use community in Albuquerque, New Mexico.-History:Mesa del Sol was approved as part of a public-private partnership strategy with the State of New Mexico, City of Albuquerque and University of New Mexico and has been planning stages since the 1980s...
, New Mexico—the largest New Urbanist project in the United States—was designed by architect Peter Calthorpe
Peter Calthorpe
Peter Calthorpe is a San Francisco-based architect, urban designer and urban planner. He is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago-based advocacy group formed in 1992 that promotes sustainable building practices.-Biography:...
, and is being developed by Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises is a $9-billion diversified real estate management and development company based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Its portfolio includes interests in retail centers, apartment communities, office buildings and mixed-use projects in the U.S...
. Mesa del Sol may take five decades to reach full build-out, at which time it should have 38,000 residential units, housing a population of 100,000; a 1400 acres (5.7 km²) industrial office park; four town centers; an urban center; and a downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
that would provide a twin city
Twin city
Twin city or twin town may refer to:*Twin cities : two towns or cities that are geographically close to each other, and often referred to collectively...
within Albuquerque.
Haile Plantation
Haile Plantation, FloridaHaile Plantation, Florida
Haile Plantation, an unincorporated community and New Urbanism planned development, is a 2,600 household development of regional impact southwest of the city of Gainesville, within Alachua County, Florida, United States...
, is a 2,600 household (1700 acres (6.9 km²)) development of regional impact southwest of the city of Gainesville, within Alachua County. Haile Village Center is a traditional neighborhood center within the development. It was originally started in 1978 and completed in 2007. In addition to the 2,600 homes the neighborhood consists of two merchant centers (one a New England narrow street village and the other a chain grocery strip mall). There are also two public elementary schools and an 18-hole golf course.
Disney's Celebration, Florida
In June 1996, the Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
unveiled its 5,000 acre (20 km²) town of Celebration
Celebration, Florida
Celebration is a census-designated place and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World Resort and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company...
, near Orlando, Florida. Celebration opened its downtown in October 1996, while Seaside's downtown was still mostly unbuilt. Disney shuns the label New Urbanism, calling Celebration simply a "town."
Celebration's Downtown has become one of the area's most popular tourist destinations making the community a showcase for New Urbanism as a prime example of the creation of a "sense of place".
Jersey City
The construction of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail in Hudson County, New JerseyHudson County, New Jersey
Hudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities...
has spurred transit-oriented development. In Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, two project are planned to transform brownfield sites, both of which have required remediation of toxic waste
Toxic waste
Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It spreads quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.Toxic waste...
by previous owners. Bayfront, once site of a Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
plant is a 100 acre (0.404686 km²) site on the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
, and is nearby the planned West Campus of New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. It is a member of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities....
. Canal Crossing
Canal Crossing, Jersey City
Canal Crossing is a New Urbanism project on the eastern side of Jersey City, New Jersey between the Greenville Section, Bergen-Lafayette and Liberty State Park...
, named for the former Morris Canal
Morris Canal
The Morris Canal was an anthracite-carrying canal that incorporated a series of water-driven inclined planes in its course across northern New Jersey in the United States. It was in use for about a century — from the late 1820s to the 1920s....
, was once partially owned by PPG Industries
PPG Industries
PPG Industries is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass and fiber glass. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2010 were $13.4 billion...
, and is a 117 acre (0.47348262 km²) site west of Liberty State Park
Liberty State Park
Liberty State Park is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey, opposite the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The park opened in 1976 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations and is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.-Geography and...
.
Old York Village, Chesterfield Township, New Jersey
The sparsely developed agricultural Township of ChesterfieldChesterfield Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 5,955 people, 899 households, and 744 families residing in the township. The population density was 278.1 people per square mile . There were 924 housing units at an average density of 43.1 per square mile...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
covers approximately 21.61 square miles (56 km²) and has made farmland preservation a priority since the 1970s. Chesterfield has permanently preserved more than 7000 acres (28.3 km²) of farmland through state and county programs and a township-wide transfer of development credits program that directs future growth to a designated "receiving area" known as Old York Village. Old York Village is a neo-traditional, new urbanism town on 560 acres (2.3 km²) incorporating a variety of housing types, neighborhood commercial facilities, a new elementary school, civic uses, and active and passive open space areas with preserved agricultural land surrounding the planned village. Construction began in the early 2000s and a significant percentage of the community is now complete. Old York Village was the winner of the American Planning Association National Outstanding Planning Award in 2004.
Other countries
New Urbanism is closely related to the Urban villageUrban village
An urban village is an urban planning and urban design concept. It refers to an urban form typically characterized by:* Medium density development* Mixed use zoning* The provision of good public transit...
movement in Europe. They both occurred at similar times and share many of the same principles although urban villages has an emphasis on traditional city planning. In Europe many brown-field sites have been redeveloped since the 1980s following the models of the traditional city neighbourhoods rather than Modernist models. One well-publicized example is Poundbury
Poundbury
Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England.The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of Prince Charles...
in England, a suburban extension to the town of Dorchester, which was built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall
Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne. If the monarch has no son, the...
under the overview of Prince Charles. The original masterplan was designed by Leon Krier
Léon Krier
Léon Krier is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. From the late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners...
. A report carried out after the first phase of construction found a high degree of satisfaction by residents, although the aspirations to reduce car dependency had not been successful. Rising house prices and a perceived premium have made the open market housing unaffordable for many local people.
The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.), formed in 2003, shares many of the same aims as the U.S.'s New Urbanists. C.E.U.'s Charter is a development of the Congress for the New Urbanism Charter revised and reorganised to relate better to European conditions. An Australian organisation, Australian Council for New Urbanism has since 2001 run conferences and events to promote New Urbanism in that country. A New Zealand Urban Design Protocol
New Zealand Urban Design Protocol
The New Zealand Urban Design Protocol was published in March 2005 by the Ministry for the Environment to recognise the importance of urban design to the development of successful towns and cities...
was created by the Ministry for the Environment in 2005.
There are many developments around the world that follow New Urbanist principles to a greater or lesser extent:
- Orchid Bay, BelizeOrchid Bay, BelizeOrchid Bay is a residential community on the Chetumal Bay in the Corozal District of northern Belize. Its New Urbanist architecture is influenced by British Colonial and Spanish Colonial styles of the Caribbean. Great Land Holdings L.P. is its owner and developer...
, is one of the largest New Urbanist projects in Central America and the Caribbean. - Val d'EuropeVal d'EuropeVal d'Europe is a part of the new town known as Marne-la-Vallée. The final area of the district is currently in development. It is located around 35 km to the east of Paris, near Disneyland Paris...
, east of¨Paris, France. Developed by Disneyland Resort ParisDisneyland Resort ParisDisneyland Paris is a holiday and recreation resort in Marne-la-Vallée, a new town in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The complex is located from the centre of Paris and lies for the most part within the commune of Chessy, Seine-et-Marne....
, this town is a kind of European counterpart to Walt Disney World Celebration City. - McKenzie Towne is a New Urbanist development which commenced in 1995 by Carma DevelopersCarma DevelopersCarma Developers, founded in 1958, is a Canadian residential land developer with master-planned communities throughout Canada and the United States. Its head offices are located in Calgary, Alberta where it is the largest residential land developer in that city....
LP in CalgaryCalgaryCalgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and has an expected completion of 2011. - The structure plan for ThimphuThimphuThimphu also spelt Thimpu, is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's dzongkhags, the Thimphu District. The city became the capital of Bhutan in 1961...
, BhutanBhutanBhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
, follows Principles of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent Urbanism is a theory of urban planning composed of a set of ten axioms intended to guide the formulation of city plans and urban designs. They are intended to reconcile and integrate diverse urban planning and management concerns...
, which share underlying axioms with the New Urbanism. - JakriborgJakriborgJakriborg is a housing estate, or new town in Hjärup, Staffanstorp Municipality between Malmö and Lund in Scania, southern Sweden. The area was built in the late 1990s by the real estate firm Jakri AB and has been growing ever since. Jakri AB was founded by two brothers, Jan Berggren and Krister...
, in Southern SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, is a recent example of the New Urbanist movement. - CornellCornell, OntarioCornell is a new community being developed in northeast Markham, Ontario and bounded by Highway 407, 16th Avenue, Ninth Line, and the Don Cousens Parkway.-History:...
, within the town of Markham, OntarioMarkham, OntarioMarkham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...
, was designed with walkable neighborhoods, density to support public transit, a variety of housing types and retail. - New Amherst is a new urbanist development in the town of Cobourg, OntarioCobourg, OntarioCobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...
. - Other developments can be found in the Netherlands, at Heulebrug, part of Knokke-HeistKnokke-HeistKnokke-Heist is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Heist-aan-Zee, Knokke, Duinbergen, Ramskapelle and Westkapelle. On January 1, 2006 Knokke-Heist had a total population of 34,063. The total area is 56.44 km² which gives a...
, in BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Fonti di Matilde, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
There are several such developments in South Africa. The most notable is Melrose Arch in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. The first development in the Eastern Cape, one of the lesser known provinces in the country, is located in East London. The development, announced in 2007, comprises 30 hectares. It is made up of three apartment complexes together with over 30 residential sites as well as 20,000 sq m of residential and office space. The development is valued at over R2 billion ($250 million).
Organizations
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, with approximately 100 attendees. By 2008 the Congress was drawing 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the annual meetings. The Congress began forming local and regional chapters circa 2004 with the founding of the New England and Florida Chapters. By 2009 there were 12 official chapters and interest groups for 11 more.
While the CNU has international participation, sister organizations have been formed in other areas of the world including the Council for European Urbanism (CEU), the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU) and the Australian Council for the New Urbanism.
By 2002 chapters of Students for the New Urbanism began appearing at universities including the Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...
, University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
, University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, and the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
. In 2003, a group of younger professionals and students met at the 11th Congress in Washington, D.C. and began developing a "Manifesto of the Next Generation of New Urbanists". The Next Generation of New Urbanists held their first major session the following year at the 12th meeting of the CNU in Chicago in 2004. The group has continued meeting annually as of 2009 with a focus on young professionals, students, new member issues, and ensuring the flow of fresh ideas and diverse viewpoints within the New Urbanism and the CNU. Spinoff projects of the New Generation of the New Urbanists include the Living Urbanism publication first published in 2008.
The CNU has spawned publications and research groups. Publications include the New Urban News and the New Town Paper. Research groups have formed independent nonprofits to research individual topics such as the Form-Based Codes Institute, The National Charrette Institute and the Center for Applied Transect Studies.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
New Urbanist and European urbanism principles are practised and taught by the The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. Other organisations promote New Urbanism as part of their remit, such as INTBAU, A Vision of Europe, and others.
The CNU and other national organizations have also formed partnerships with like-minded groups. Organizations under the banner of Smart Growth
Smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
also often work with the Congress for the New Urbanism. In addition the CNU has formed partnerships on specific projects such as working with the [United States Green Building Council] and the Natural Resources Defense Council
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a New York City-based, non-profit, non-partisan international environmental advocacy group, with offices in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing...
to develop the LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
for Neighborhood Development standards and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers
Institute of Transportation Engineers
The Institute of Transportation Engineers or ITE is an international educational and scientific association of transportation professionals who are responsible for meeting mobility and safety needs. ITE was founded in 1930 as the Institute of Traffic Engineers and its first president was Ernest P...
to develop a Context Sensitive Solutions
Context Sensitive Solutions
Context-sensitive solutions is a theoretical and practical approach to transportation decision-making and design that takes into consideration the communities and lands which streets, roads, and highways pass through...
(CSS) Design manual.
Film
The 2004 documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
The End of Suburbia
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream is a 2004 documentary film concerning peak oil and its implications for the suburban lifestyle, written and directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Gregory Greene....
argues that the depletion of oil will result in the demise of the sprawl-type development. New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism, a feature length 2008 documentary about urban designer Michael E. Arth
Michael E. Arth
Michael E. Arth is an American artist, home/landscape/urban designer, public policy analyst, advocate for the homeless, futurist, and author. He was a candidate for the governor of Florida in 2009 and 2010.-Art:Michael E...
, explains the principles of his New Pedestrianism
New pedestrianism
New Pedestrianism is a more idealistic variation of New Urbanism in urban planning theory, founded in 1999 by Michael E. Arth, an American artist, urban/home/landscape designer, futurist, and author...
, a more ecological and pedestrian-oriented version of New Urbanism. The film also gives a brief history of New Urbanism, and chronicles the rebuilding of an inner city slum into a model of New Urbanism.
Criticisms
New Urbanism has drawn both praise and criticism from all quarters of the political spectrumPolitical spectrum
A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....
. In an interview in Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
, a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
magazine, professor Peter Gordon, a professor of Urban Planning from University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, spoke out in favor of suburbanization and criticized New Urbanism as ignoring consumer preference and the free market, claiming that cities have moved towards car-oriented development because that is what people want.
Critics claim that the effectiveness of the New Urbanist solution of mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence. However, numerous studies by independent think tanks support the idea of addressing poverty through mixed-income developments, because these developments facilitate the bridging of social capital, and thus provide for a higher shared quality of life across socioeconomic cleavages. The argument that New Urbanism produces diversity has been challenged from findings from one community in Canada.
The New Urbanist preference for 'permeable' street grids has been criticised on the grounds that it gives private motor vehicles an advantage over walking, cycling and public transport. The transport performance of some New Urbanist developments, such as Poundbury
Poundbury
Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England.The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of Prince Charles...
, has been disappointing, with surveys revealing high levels of car use. The alternative view, termed 'filtered permeability' (see Permeability (spatial and transport planning)
Permeability (spatial and transport planning)
Permeability or connectivity describes the extent to which urban forms permit movement of people or vehicles in different directions. The terms are often used interchangeably, although differentiated definitions also exist...
) is that, to give pedestrians and cyclists a time and convenience advantage, they need to be separated from motor vehicles in places.
A forthcoming rating system for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
, being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism, should help to quantify the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design. New Urbanist and board member of CNU, Doug Farr
Doug Farr
Douglas Lynn Farr is an American architect and urban planner.Farr was born in Detroit, Michigan and received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and later, his masters degree in architecture from Columbia University.In 1990, Farr founded Farr...
has taken a step further and coined Sustainable Urbanism, which combines New Urbanism and LEED-ND to create walkable, transit-served urbanism with high performance buildings and infrastructure.
New Urbanism has been criticized for being a form of centrally-planned, large-scale development, "instead of allowing the initiative for construction to be taken by the final users themselves". It has been criticized for asserting universal principles of design instead of attending to local conditions.
Urban planners, architects and New Urbanists
- Michael E. ArthMichael E. ArthMichael E. Arth is an American artist, home/landscape/urban designer, public policy analyst, advocate for the homeless, futurist, and author. He was a candidate for the governor of Florida in 2009 and 2010.-Art:Michael E...
- Larry BeasleyLarry BeasleyLarry Beasley, CM was recently Co-Director of Planning for the City Of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. He is largely credited with the transformation of its downtown core along New Urbanism lines, known as Vancouverism or "The Vancouver Model".In 2004, he was made a Member of the Order of...
- Christopher Charles BenningerChristopher Charles BenningerChristopher Charles Benninger is an American-Indian architect and planner born in the United States in 1942. He studied urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where he later taught .Benninger studied under Josep Lluis...
- Peter CalthorpePeter CalthorpePeter Calthorpe is a San Francisco-based architect, urban designer and urban planner. He is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago-based advocacy group formed in 1992 that promotes sustainable building practices.-Biography:...
- Andrés DuanyAndrés DuanyAndrés Duany is an American architect and urban planner.Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960. He attended The Choate School and received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University...
- Leon KrierLéon KrierLéon Krier is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. From the late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners...
- James Howard KunstlerJames Howard KunstlerJames Howard Kunstler is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere , a history of American suburbia and urban development, and the more recent The Long Emergency , where he argues that declining oil production is likely...
- Sim Van der RynSim Van der RynSim Van der Ryn is acknowledged as a leader in "sustainable architecture." He is also a researcher and educator. Van der Ryn's driving professional interest has been applying principles of physical and social ecology to architecture and environmental design....
Locations
- Atlantic Station, AtlantaAtlantic StationAtlantic Station is a large brownfield redevelopment project at the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Atlantic Station is being master developed by AIG Global Real Estate and local development partner Jacoby Development, Inc...
- Birkdale Village, North CarolinaBirkdale VillageBirkdale Village is a new urban mixed use community twelve miles north of Charlotte, North Carolina in Huntersville, North Carolina. It has numerous restaurants, stores, cafes, apartments, townhomes, and houses...
- Greenbelt, MarylandGreenbelt, MarylandGreenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District...
- Issaquah Highlands, Issaquah, WashingtonIssaquah HighlandsIssaquah Highlands — Issaquah, Washington is an urban village planned community developed following concepts of New Urbanism located on the Pine Lake Plateau directly east of Interstate 90 in the City of Issaquah, Washington, 17 miles [27 kilometers] east of Seattle, Washington. Land was purchased...
- Kentlands, Gaithersburg, MarylandKentlands, Gaithersburg, MarylandLocated in the city of Gaithersburg, Maryland in the United States, Kentlands was one of the first attempts to develop a community using Traditional Neighborhood Design planning techniques that are now generally referred to under the rubric of the New Urbanism...
- National HarborNational Harbor, MarylandNational Harbor is a multi-use waterfront development on the shores of the Potomac River in Prince George's County, Maryland just south of Washington, D.C. near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. It is being built by the Peterson Companies. The project is expected to cost over $2 billion...
- New Town, MissouriNew Town, MissouriNew Town at St. Charles is a partially completed planned community within the city of St. Charles, Missouri. The community's developers espouse the principles of Traditional Neighborhood Design and New Urbanism...
- Orenco StationOrenco StationOrenco Station is a neighborhood of the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The planned urban town center was designed as a pedestrian friendly, high density community built in conjunction with TriMet’s Westside light rail...
, Oregon (New Urbanist transit-oriented development) - Portland, OregonPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
(New Urbanist transit-oriented development) - Beacon Cove
- Coed DarcyCoed DarcyCoed Darcy is a new village currently being developed adjacent to Llandarcy in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.-Historical background:...
- PoundburyPoundburyPoundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England.The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of Prince Charles...
- Prospect New Town, ColoradoProspect New TownProspect New Town is a New Urbanist housing development located on the southern edge of the city of Longmont in Boulder County, Colorado in the United States...
- VerradoVerradoVerrado is a master-planned community located in the Town of Buckeye, Arizona, approximately 25 miles west of downtown Phoenix. The development, at the base of the White Tank Mountains, is the largest suburban community in Metropolitan Phoenix in which the concept of New Urbanism was utilized...
, Buckeye, ArizonaBuckeye, ArizonaBuckeye is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States and is the westernmost suburb in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The population of the town as of Census 2010 was 50,876, a 678% increase from the 2000 population of 6,537.-Geography:... - Old York Village, Chesterfield Township, New JerseyChesterfield Township, New Jersey-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 5,955 people, 899 households, and 744 families residing in the township. The population density was 278.1 people per square mile . There were 924 housing units at an average density of 43.1 per square mile...
Topics
- Car-free movementCar-free movementThe car-free movement is a broad, informal, emergent network of individuals and organizations including social activists, urban planners and others brought together by a shared belief that cars are too dominant in most modern cities...
- CarsharingCarsharingCar sharing or Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They are attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use...
- Community buildingCommunity buildingCommunity building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area or with a common interest...
- Crime prevention through environmental designCrime prevention through environmental designCrime prevention through environmental design is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts...
- European Urban RenaissanceEuropean Urban RenaissanceThe European Urban Renaissance is an architectural movement aiming at developing the European cities according to the principles of the Traditional City and the New Urbanism.-Typology of intervention:...
- GentrificationGentrificationGentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
- International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism
- MIU (Movement for Israeli Urbanism)MIU (Movement for Israeli Urbanism)MIU Is an Israeli non-profit organization established in 2004 which today has more than 500 members including city planners, architects, academics and planners, working to promote the norms of sustainable urban planning for New Urbanism...
- Micro-urbanMicro-urbanMicro-urban is an informal term for smaller cities of 250,000 or less with certain urban characteristics normally found in large metropolitan centers...
- Naked streets
- Principles of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent UrbanismPrinciples of Intelligent Urbanism is a theory of urban planning composed of a set of ten axioms intended to guide the formulation of city plans and urban designs. They are intended to reconcile and integrate diverse urban planning and management concerns...
- Pedestrian-oriented development
- Pedestrian VillagePedestrian VillageA pedestrian village is a compact, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood or town, with a mixed-use village center, that follows the tenets of New Pedestrianism. Shared-use lanes for pedestrians and those using bicycles, Segways, wheelchairs, and other small rolling conveyances that do not use internal...
- Preservation developmentPreservation developmentPreservation Development is a model of real estate development that addresses farmland preservation. It shares many attributes with conservation development, with the addition of strategies for maintaining and operating productive agriculture and silviculture, often in perpetuity...
- Urban decayUrban decayUrban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...
- Urban RenaissanceUrban RenaissanceUrban renaissance is a term used to describe the recent period of repopulation and regeneration of many British cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and parts of London after a period of inner city urban decay and suburbanisation during the mid-20th...
- UrbanismUrbanismBroadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
- World Urbanism DayWorld Urbanism DayThe international organization for World Urbanism Day , also known as "World Town Planning Day", was founded in 1949 by the late Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires, a graduate at the Institut d'urbanisme in Paris, to advance public and professional interest in...
Further reading
- Arth, Michael E., The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems. 2007 Online edition. Labor IX: Urbanism Link to book
- Arth, Michael E. (2010). Democracy and the Common Wealth: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests Golden Apples Media, ISBN 978-0-912467-12-2. pp. 120–139, 363-386 Website about, and excerpts from Democracy and the Common Wealth
- Bohl, Charles C. "New Urbanism in the City: Potential Applications and Implications for Distressed Inner-City Neighborhoods." Housing Policy Debate 11.4 (2000): 761-801. (http://www.botsfor.no/publikasjoner/litteratur/new%20urbanism/new%20urbanism%20and%20the%20city%20by%20charles%20bohl.pdf)
- Brooke, Steven (1995). Seaside. Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 0-88289-997-X
- Calthorpe, Peter (1993). The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-878271-68-7
- Calthorpe, Peter and William Fulton (2001). The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl. Washington, DC: Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-784-6
- Dutton, John A. (2001). New American Urbanism: Re-forming the Suburban Metropolis. Milano: Skira editore. ISBN 88-8118-741-8
- Jacobs, Jane (1992). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-74195-X. Originally published: New York: Random House, (1961).
- Katz, Peter (1994). The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-033889-2
- Kunstler, James Howard (1994). Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-88825-0
- Waugh, David. 2004 Buying New Urbanism: A Study of New Urban Characteristics that Residents Value. Applied Research Project. Texas State University. http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/22/