New Urbanism

What Is the Transect?
In urbanism and planning, the term transect provides a conceptual framework for understanding how the scale of built environments can vary from place to place.

Disney Plans New Residential Developments
Despite the less-than-magical results of its experiment in Celebration, Florida, Disney has announced plans to build a chain of master-planned communities around the country.

Urban Villages: The Key to Sustainable Community Economic Development
Compact, walkable urban villages support sustainable economic development by reducing transportation costs, leaving residents with more money to spend on local goods, and by creating more efficient and attractive commercial districts.

Looking Beyond the 'Sidewalk Ballet:' Jane Jacobs in the 21st Century
While The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains an urban planning classic, today's planners must contend with challenges that Jacobs couldn't have anticipated.
Road Design Still Privileges Cars
Author Jeff Speck discusses the progress made since he first wrote Walkable City–and how far we still have to go to build streets that are safe for all.

How the Built Environment Impacts Public Health
New research sheds light on how the brain responds to urban environments and architecture.

Deconstructing Saint Jane
The iconic urban thinker has influenced generations of planners, but how do her ideas hold up in an age of massive upheaval and economic inequality?

Defining the Buzzword: What's a 15-Minute City?
What does it mean to be a 15-minute city?

Reassessing New Urbanism
A thematic issue of the peer reviewed journal Urban Planning provides a framework for reassessing New Urbanism.

What Is New Urbanism?
New Urbanism is one of the most influential planning and urban design reform movements of recent decades.

The Villages and the Dangers of Holding Too Tightly to the Past
Some parts of The Villages, Florida, the nation's largest retirement community and one of its most popular master planned communities, bear a striking resemblance to the neotraditional development favored by famous early examples of New Urbanism.

Different Types of Pro-Development Urbanism, Explained
Can't tell New Urbanism from YIMBY? This post tries to help.

New Urbanism and Jacobs: A Tangled Disconnect
New Urbanism was in part born of the criticisms of 20th century planning principles popularized by Jane Jacobs, but Jacobs infamously derided the new school of thought.

New Urbanists and New Housing
The Charter of the New Urbanism favors infill development, yet new urbanists sometimes oppose infill, especially in historic urban areas. This post speculates on why that might be the case.

Op-Ed: Utopian Thinking Poses Continued Dangers for Urbanists
Charles Wolfe calls attention to similarities between contemporary urbanism and yesterday's debunked utopias. The two may differ in substance, but both tend toward a certain level of dogma that isn't necessarily helpful on the ground.
'The Users' Guide to Zoning Reform' Published by the Congress for New Urbanism
The Congress for New Urbanism's Users' "Guide to Code Reform" leads planners through the code reform process, providing tools for governments lacking the capacity to develop a full form-based code.

Massive Waterfront Investment 'Reinvents' Tampa
After decades of planning, the city hopes several huge developments will draw millenials and empty-nesters.

The Ancient Roots of New Urbanism
The planning values and principles of New Urbanism are deeply rooted in human history. What does this look like, and what can we learn from it? The archaeology of an ancient Mayan city sheds some light.

And the Oscar Goes To...
Many of the Best Picture nominees are set in cities, and none are focused on suburbia.

The Lessons Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander Still Have to Teach
Robert Steuteville reviews Cities Alive, by Michael Mehaffy, describing the newly released book as "an important analysis for urbanism."
Pagination
Town of Reading
Meridian Consultants
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
City of Morganton
St. Louis County, MO
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.