09 June 2009

New urbanist literacy

Whether you love it or despise it, new urbanism has infiltrated the vocabulary and toolbox for community planning and design. When I give our undergraduate students a lecture on the movement, I primarily use Seaside, Celebration, The Kentlands (photo below), and Washington Town Center as examples of what is and isn't part of new urbanism. Orenco Station is tempting since I have some photos already. Civano achieved enough different accomplishments to get a solid place in Fritz Steiner's The Living Landscape.
Even if you dislike the movement, being literate in these matters is key to advancing the discussion. And I am a little less interested in favorites than useful icons. So, what are the new iconic new urban (or TND or TOD or whatever) developments that students should learn about as they develop their own personal opinions about this movement? Given a very limited time to add to their list, what 2 or 3 developments would be good ones for them to watch over the next few years?

New Town at St Charles
Mashpee Commons
Bay Meadows
Middleton Hills
Orenco Station
Stapleton
Tualatin Commons
Fairview Village
Vermillion
Civano

I'll be monitoring the comments on this post, so you can offer suggestions of other communities to look at. But take a minute or two to vote in the poll ( --> ) that I have just added in the column on the right. I'll post the results early next week.

1 comment:

Sharon McMillan said...

Another very interesting development that involved significant local input and world-wide research is the "new" city being developed in the historic town (& suburb) called Markham (located outside of Toronto).

http://www.downtownmarkham.ca/

Markham is also the town that CNU co-founder Peter Calthorpe was hired by to design the town's new transportation hub.