Is New Urbanism dead? Writer Rich Carson says it is in his latest essay titled "Urban Realism: What is past is prologue." The essay is the monthly feature on the website Plan Net Architecture Online (http://www.plannet.com/daily.html). It is Carson's thesis that the events of September 11th have began a new era his calls Urban Realism. He sees this new Urban Realism influencing a new age of art, architecture and urban planning.

For example, Carson says that:

- New Urbanism "failed to find its genesis in the Amercian psyche,"

- "Corporate American will move out of their inner-city phallic symbols," and

- "Martha Stewart will no longer be a New Urbanist criminal because we will once again embrace the serenity of our back yards and the quiet backwater of the cul-de-sac."

However, Carson says that the death of New Urbanism is not the end of good planning. Instead it means that urban planning will return to a "very rational and functional approach to creating human settlements."

Related Link: Plan Net Architecture Online

For more information contact:

Richard Carson

12920 NE 227th Avenue
Brush Prairie
WA 98060
USA

Phone: 360-397-2375, ext. 4101
Email: [email protected]