U.S. Army Tries New Urbanism

Fort Belvoir's first New Urbanist village was occupied last year with 171 townhomes and houses designed in a local Georgian Colonial style. Herryford Village includes a "Main Street with shops and a clock tower, playgrounds, and village greens with open-air pavilions and centralized mailboxes where residents can socialize informally." In the past, suburban-style military housing looked like "the architectural equivalent of a uniform."

Joseph Scanga, a principal at Calthorpe Associates, works with the Army and the Navy to design housing. He says: "Military neighborhoods become ghost towns with heavy deployment. They struggle more than average to build and maintain community."