New Urbanism: A Better Suburbia?

Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bay writes about New Urbanism and the community of Prairie Crossing."Built about 10 years ago, Prairie Crossing is a national model of a better suburbia. The development offers mostly open space--more than 60 percent of the 700-acre site is left undeveloped. Homes have a hand-tooled quality...Planners,architects and activists are looking to make suburban areas function and feel like small towns instead of tract developments. The movement was born in reaction to sprawling, featureless suburbs. Could it be the cure for suburbia's ills? The movement is praised as often as it is pilloried. But the new approach is getting the attention of the country and its home buyers."