There's Still Time To Register For The Urbanism Conference Of The Year

Congress for the New Urbanism

In a year when New Urbanism is bringing plans and optimism to cities and towns along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, the biggest annual gathering of urbanists will feature four days focused on strategies for getting great plans implemented -- in communities from Mississippi to Maine and abroad.

CNU XIV: Developing the New Urbanism will advance the cause of community building – and advance your career – like no other event anywhere.

CNU and its 2800 members are dedicated to great place making from the moment the pencil hits the drafting paper to the time the last brick is put in place. And Providence is living proof of this approach. City leaders have liberated a paved-over riverfront, moved rail lines to the edge of downtown, and started relocating an interstate superhighway from a revitalizing district -- capitalizing on first-rate urban fabric and boosting the city's quality of life. Now the organizers of the Congress from Providence and elsewhere want to share the keys to implementation success and expand the pool of New Urbanist developers.

CNU XIV will be a powerful learning environment with a range of unique program features:

• Keynote speakers include urban design legend Léon Krier; celebrated architect and "A Pattern Language"-author Christopher Alexander; CNU founder, Gulf charrettes leader and author of "Suburban Nation" Andrés Duany; Orlando infill developer David Pace; ULI chair Marilyn Jordan Taylor; and architect and "Global City Blues" author Dan Solomon.
• Expert urbanists will lead four major working sessions on implementation challenges including sessions devoted to combating the affordable housing crisis, implementing post-Katrina renewal, and creating pattern-books for high-density urbanism.
• Innovative "Urban Laboratories" will use Providence as a classroom, taking participants out onto the streets to examine and tackle tough urban development problems present in many American cities.
• An impressive array of hot topic sessions include: New Urbanism and Modernism, advancing urbanism through school reform, a "Sprawl Brawl" between Robert Brueggeman and Anthony Flint, production housing, the Providence story, new life for dead malls, the post-carbon society, green urbansim, global practice in New Urbanism, financing mixed-use development, not-for-profit developers, implementing public-private partnerships, and learning to love density
• Chapter Meet-Ups offer the chance to meet urbanists from Atlanta, the Carolinas, Central Texas, District of Columbia, Florida, Houston, Illinois, Nashville, New England, New York/New Jersey, Northern California, Pennsylvania, Southern California, and the Mountain West.