New Urbanism

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 continues to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning.

New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards prominent before the rise of the automobile and encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD).^[1] It is also closely related to Regionalism, Environmentalism and the broader concept of smart growth.

Market Street, downtown Celebration, Florida

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:

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.

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 urban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the redevelopment of brownfield land.

Background

New Urbanism draws from the design of older urban neighborhoods, like this one in Venice, California.

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 transit the reach of the city extended outward along transit lines, allowing for the growth of new pedestrian communities such as streetcar suburbs. 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.^[2] 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"^[3] or pejoratively as urban sprawl, arose after World War II. The majority of U.S. citizens now live in suburban 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.^[4]

Defining elements

Prospect New Town in Longmont, Colorado, showing a mix of aggregate housing and traditional detached homes

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.

1. 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.
2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly ¼ mile or 1,320 feet (0.4 km).
3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments — so that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live.
4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment 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).
6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home.
7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling — not more than a tenth of a mile away.
8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
12. 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.
13. 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.

Examples

United States

Grande Market Square in Burnsville, Minnesota. Small scale redevelopment in suburban communities is often executed in the new urbanism style

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,Florida has adopted the most ambitious new urbanist-based zoning code reform yet undertaken by a major U.S. city.^[5]

More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S. following new urbanism 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.

The Cotton District

The Cotton District was the first new urbanist development, begun in 1968 long before the new urbanism movement was organized.^[6] The District is located in Starkville, Mississippi bordering 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 an area that surrounds an old cotton mill.

Seaside

Seaside, Florida, 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.

Stapleton

The site of the former Stapleton International Airport 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.^[7][8] Northfield Stapleton, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.

Mountain House

Mountain House is a new town between Tracy, California and Livermore, California. Mountain House is one of latest New Urbanism projects in the United States. 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.

Mesa del sol

Mesa del Sol- is the largest new urbanist project in the United States, was design by architect Peter Calthorpe and is being developed by Forest City Enterprises.It could take five decades to reach full build-out of Mesa del Sol but when finished it could have population of 100,000 ,38,000 residential units, a 1,400-acre industrial office park, four town centers ,a Urban center and a Downtown creating a twin city within Albuquerque.

Haile Plantation

Haile Plantation, Florida, is a 2,600 household (1,700 acre) 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 Company 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. It has since eclipsed Seaside as the best-known new urbanist community, but Disney shuns the label, calling Celebration simply a "town." Disney has been criticized for insipid nostalgia, and heavy-handed rules and management.

Other countries

View of Poundbury, Dorset, UK

New Urbanism is closely related to the Urban village 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.^[9]

The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.), formed in 2003, shares many of the same aims as the US 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:

• Orchid Bay, Belize is one of the largest New Urbanist projects in Central America and the Caribbean.
• Val d'Europe, east of¨Paris, France. Developed by Disneyland Resort Paris, 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 Developers LP in Calgary and has an expected completion of 2011.
• The Alta de Lisboa project, in north Lisbon, Portugal, is one of the largest new urbanist projects in Europe.
• The structure plan for Thimphu, Bhutan, follows Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, which share underlying axioms with the New Urbanism.
• Jakriborg, in Southern Sweden, is a recent example of the new urbanist movement.
• Other developments can be found in Heulebrugge, the Netherlands; Knokke-Heist, in Belgium; and Fonti di Matilde, Italy.

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 site as well as 20,000 sqm of residential and office space. The development is valued at over R2-billion ($250 million).

New Urbanist Organizations

Mixed use pedestrian friendly street in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia.

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, VA 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 student chapters referring to themselves as Students for the New Urbanism began appearing at universities including the 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. Spin off 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 National 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.

New Urbanism in film

The 2004 documentary 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.^[10] 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.^[11][12]

Criticisms

New urbanism has drawn both praise and criticism from all quarters of the political spectrum. In an interview in Reason magazine, 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.^[13]

Although the current use of non-mixed ghettoed social housing projects have been a dismal failure, critics claim that the effectiveness of the New Urbanist solution of mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence. However, numerous studies by independent think tanks provide support to the basis for 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.^[14][15]

A stream of thought in sustainable development maintains that sustainability is based primarily on the combination of high density and transit service. Critics claim many new urbanist developments fall short of being truly sustainable, to the extent that they rely on automobile transport, and serve the detached single family housing market. Many new urbanists claim that this is an incentive that prepares people in transition from conventional suburban living to going back to downtown living.

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.^[16] The transport performance of some New Urbanist developments, such as Poundbury has been disappointing, with surveys revealing high levels of car use^[9] 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 [2], 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.

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• Congress for the New Urbanism
  • Charter of the New Urbanism
  • Local Chapters
• Australian Council for New Urbanism
• Council for European Urbanism
• NewUrbanism.org
• American Planning Association New Urbanism Division
• New Urban Mom
• International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism
• A Vision of Europe
• Next Generation of New Urbanists (NextGen Wiki)
• New Pedestrianism
• Sustainable Urban Development Resource Guide