In the 1980s a new movement called New Urbanism brought the importance of physical design as a major tool of community planning. This movement arose from the visionary work of a number of architects and planners across the United States. Explain the concepts of New Urbanism and the impacts it has had on development. Also consider the negatives to this new movement.
New Urbanism
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Urban Forestry 
New Urbanism is a movement with the goal to raise our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism focuses on building complete cities, towns, and villages. Planning for compact growth is the key component for this movement to prevent urban sprawl. This process has the potential to increase the quality of the environment. It also prevents congestion problems and the environmental degradation normally associated with growth.
The principles of New Urbanism involve walkability, connectivity, mixed use of infrastructure, diversity, mixed housing, quality architecture and urban design. It also involves traditional neighborhood structure, increased density, smart transportation, sustainability, and quality of life. The first principle, walkability, consists of providing pedestrian friendly street design which includes buildings close to street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets. The convenience of most services within a 10-minute walk of home and work. Connectivity creates ease of walking with the use of high quality pedestrian network. This movement supports diversity among cultures, ages, and races as well as neighborhoods comprised of shops, offices, apartments and homes on the same block. There are no distinctive borders among the types of housing based on prices and sizes. The designs of the communities will emphasis on beauty and comfort. The traditional neighborhood structure will have a defined center of public space and incorporate quality public accessibility to services within 10-minute walk. The New Urbanism movement also places buildings, shops, homes, and services closer together to create an efficient use of services and resources. The smart transportation principle connects cities, towns, and neighborhoods together with at network of high-quality trains. The pedestrian friendly design will increase the use of bicycles and walking, as another means of transportation. This movement will have minimal environmental impact of development and its operations, more eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems, energy efficiency, less use of finite fuels and more local production. Less driving would be encouraged in this design. Last but not least, the quality of life should be enhanced in this movement.
There are a few matters that may become an issue with using the New Urbanism movement. Some feel new urbanism produces overly planned neighborhoods. Homeowners may face strict zoning regulations when changes are made to their homes. Factors such as tree plantings or paint color for homeowners would have to meet the approval of a neighborhood committee. The New Urbanism costs more to design. In comparisons to conventional projects, builders will have to spend more money to incorporate all the traditional neighborhood development (TNDS). The principles of New Urbanism do not include gated communities, but this can be a sales disadvantage in some markets. Many individuals are concerned about crime and feel safer in a gated community. Consumers are willing to pay extra for such amenities. The mix of land uses in the New Urbanism concept means that many types of residential and commercial buildings will be placed in relatively close proximity. Another concern buyers may became wary of is the close proximity of single homes near townhomes, apartments, and stores. This may turn buyers away from purchasing these homes.
There are some great practices associated with the New Urbanism movement however I can foresee an issue with the mixed housing in close proximity. If a person buys a million dollar home because of the water view, and there are homes worth $400,000 located two blocks away with the same view, how many people are going to purchase that home? This could certainly affect the housing market. There will be a continuous issue of homeowner associations. Regardless if an individual signs the dotted line stating they must abide by certain rules, when someone wants to renovate or add something to their home it will be a fight. One feels if they are paying the bills, they should be able to do as one pleases. I understand the main goal of the movement but there will need to be provisions in place so one does not feel hindered from expressing themselves with such changes.
“New Urbanism.” New Urbanism. Web. 08 Mar. 2011. .
“Pros and Cons for Builders Attempting New Urbanism | New Urban Network.” Home Page | New Urban Network. 01 Jan. 1999. Web. 08 Mar. 2011. .
The New Urbanism Movement has played a great role in way planning and urban development has shaped the America we see today. However, New Urbanism seems to focus on upscale communities and water front environments. My communities in urban areas have been left behind in this Urbanist movement. How can proponents of New Urbanism bring urbanism development to the inner cities of America?
Raymond,
New Urbanism can bring urbanism development to the inner cities of America by embracing the basic elements of New Urbanism: nice streetscape, reestablishment of city street/block pattern and providing plenty of “eyes on the street” for public safety. Those are labeled urban infill. Some go farther, incorporating the finer points of urban design: town centers and squares, terminating vistas and a palette of housing types, civic and commercial “civic art. One example of urban fill can be seen in Baltimore, Maryland. Pleasant View Gardens was opened in October, 1997. Pleasant View Gardens, with 228 townhomes and 110 apartments for the elderly, replaced the 577-unit Lafayette Courts high rise project torn down in 1995. The rebuilt project also has day care, recreation, and community service and health clinic facilities. The centerpiece of the project is a well proportioned central green. The streets have been designed to be pedestrian friendly, with providing community surveillance to guard against crime. Other positive aspects of the project are the proximity of services, including an elementary school and a grocery store within about a three-minute walk. There are some downfalls with this project such as the connection of surrounding blocks because of existing adjacent streets. I think it is possible to incorporate the New Urbanism movement into the inner city. Many blighted areas can be revitalized. The more aesthetics and growth in a community, the most likely the presence of those individuals involved in criminal activity will decrease. These areas will attract more individuals back to their communities which were once considered undesirable.
With reaguards to the housing and ecomonic crisis happening here in America, How do you think this down turn will efffect the New Urbanist movement?
According to Leinberger (2011) he feels the current housing crisis was not only caused by greed of banks and Wall Street but people wanted to move away from the hour long drive to work and having a “fleet of cars” for each person in the home because of the various activities and places that were being attended. This is the opinion of one individual however people will still have the desire to have a place of their own. I feel this movement will still occur because the incentives of affordable housing and the convenience of products and services will attract buyers.
Leinberger, Christopher. “Federal Restructuring of Fannie and Freddie Ignores Underlying Cause of Crisis.” UrbanLand Home. 10 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. .
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and types of job. It began in the 1980s and since then it has been use to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning. It promotes connectivity, interconnected street grid network disperses traffic and ease walking, a hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys, and high quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking enjoyable. It also promotes mixed-use and diversity, quality Architecture and Urban Design, traditional neighborhood structure, increased density, green transportation, sustainability, and quality of life.
Overall, New Urbanism refers to a form of development that integrates shopping and housing in a pedestrian friendly commuting and other daily travel. New Urbanism is an increasing hot topic in heavily congested regions, such as Los Angeles, where the wider, often meandering, tree-lined walkways New Urbanists adopt to evoke older traditional neighborhoods, must be grafted onto existing, auto-friendly grid systems.
New Urbanism has been hotly debated solution to traffic congestion, energy inefficiency, public health threats, and overall social problems associated with America’s sprawling suburbs(crane 1996; Fulton 1996; Plas and Lewis 1996, Gordon and Richardson 2000). Proponents of New Urbanism proclaim the anticipated positive benefits of this distinctive form of urban design, with decreased automobile usage (Crane 1996). New Urbanism plans are usually sold to public officials based on their supposed transportation benefits, including reduced dependence on the automobile.
New Urbanism design was a reaction to postwar planning that encouraged the separated residential and business uses that we see today. Beyond the safety aspects of the old urban neighborhood was an idea that New Urbanism could integrate transportation and walkability through connectivity of neighborhood. In old neighborhood, it was possible for store owners to live on the second floor of their shops and visit the grocery stores within a walking distance.
One of the most criticisms of the New Urbanism is that it fails to address the problem of self-selection, or the possibility that residents of New Urbanism communities are already predisposed to ecological attitudes that predict more environmentally responsible behavior, regardless of design. New Urbanist communities are generally upscale, and typically built in desirable communities, near water or interesting environments. The question surrounding the efficacy of New Urbanism is that does New Urbanist design as a specific structural form reduce resident’s reliance on automobile? Or do individuals who choose to buy homes in New Urbanist communities share ecological attitudes that predispose them to use alternative modes of transportation?
By
Raymond Sumo
Fulton, William. 1996. The New Urbanism: Hope of Hype for American Communities? Cambridge, MA:
Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.
Crane, Randall. 1996. “Cars and Drivers in the New Suburbs: Linking Access to Travel in Neotraditional
Planning.” Journal of the American Planning Association 62, 1: 51-65.
—–. 2000. “The Influence of Urban Form on Travel: An Interpretive Review. Journal of Planning
Literature 15, 1: 1-23.
Gordon, Peter and Harry Richardson. 2000. “Defending Urban Sprawl.” The Public Interest 139
(Spring): 65-41.
McLaughlin, J and Allison, J. E. 2010: Urban Design, Environmental Consciousness, and Sustainable Communities: Can New Urbanism Reduce Driving in Auto Friendly Los Angeles?
Center for Sustainable Suburban Development,
University of California, Riverside
Plas, J. M. and Lewis, S. E. 1996. “Environmental factors and sense of community in a planned town.”
American Journal of Community Psychology24,1: 109-143.
Raymond,
“The question surrounding the efficacy of New Urbanism is that does New Urbanist design as a specific structural form reduce resident’s reliance on automobile? Or do individuals who choose to buy homes in New Urbanist communities share ecological attitudes that predispose them to use alternative modes of transportation?”
I feel new urbanism will attract individuals who share similar views on the preservation of the environment. Others may be attracted to the accessibility of products and services within walking distance from one’s residence. But I do not feel this deign will reduce the reliance on automobiles. For example, it may be more convenient and safer for a family with children under five years of age to use their car to travel. Automobiles are used for transport of goods and services as well so business owners will continue to make necessary deliveries and so forth. At least this design will make more people aware of their environment and become more environmental friendly.
With a rising popultion and resource shortages worldwide do you feel that New Urbanism can be completely sustainable or is New Urbanism a trend more for the developed world?
Across North America, and around the world, an urban design movement called New Urbanism is changing the way our cities and towns are built. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s and continues to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a re-ordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods – the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism involves fixing and infilling cities, as well as the creation of compact new towns and villages. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages. New urbanism benefits to developers is less need for parking facilities due to mix of residences and commercial uses within walking distance of each other, less impact on roads / traffic, which can result in lower impact fees, lower cost of utilities due to compact nature of New Urbanist design, greater acceptance by the public and less resistance, faster sell out due to greater acceptance by consumers from a wider product range resulting in wider market share. New Urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of scales from a single building to an entire community. Overall, New Urbanism provided residents with a healthier lifestyle that was threatened by extinction as a result of the suburban sprawl. By offering an answer to the extensive grow of roads and strip malls, New Urbanism managed to promote the importance of historical preservation and create the grounds for the development of green building. In spite of criticism that is mostly related to the argument that homebuyers will continue to prefer the life in the suburbs, New Urbanism has offered many people a great alternative: the option to return to the roots of traditional design and to the fundamental understanding of the connection between the neighborhood and the street. Critics of New Urbanism are that New Urbanist neighborhoods are overly planned. Strict zoning regulations can limit the freedom of homeowners to make changes to their homes. Details such as exterior colors and tree plantings often must meet the approval of a neighborhood committee.
http://www.newurbanism.org/
Peter Gordon and Harry W. Richardson, 1998, A Critique of New Urbanism, University of Southern California.
New Urbanism, Congress for the New Urbanism
New Urbanism
The tug of war between human beings and nature will always be ongoing as long as human beings are present on earth, but as we all may know nature will always win that war, however the tug a war between society and evolution is always a compremise or draw. A new age defination for New Urbanism would be the evolution of living spaces where inovation gives people a better stanard of living.Many technological avdvances has benifited mankind over the years and still now more technolgical inovation is making a ground-breaking path. As human beings one should not ever live in the past or the present, but more so live in a futuristic concept. New Urbanism is a concept of the future which under goes a process that is required for humans to live in today.
In the question that was posed explain the concepts of New Urbanism and the impacts it has had on development; and consider the negatives to this new movement. On this question many thoughts and ideas come to mind in the development of a reponse to this question. To start off my response to this question is a quote from the New Urbanism Congress “The organizing body for New Urbanism is the Congress for the New Urbanism, founded in 1993. Its foundational text is the Charter of the New Urbanism, which says: We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice” . In a perfect world these are great principles, but unfortunatly in the world we live in today that concept is not applied everywhere and is often abused.
The pros and cons of New Urbanism; Con; critics of New Urbanism say that New Urbanist neighborhoods are overly planned, which can lead to an array of problems such strict zoning and harsh polices and laws. A person may agure that no one should have the right to tell him or her, what color they should paint their house or how tall their can grow. Pro; Some New Urbanists say that crime is reduced when people build attractive towns where people are encouraged to gather and spend time together. This statement is very true no one wants to live where crime is present, but a contrversal question come with that statement, and that is did the crime disapear or reduce or reloacte to an area where the that was forgotten by the politican. Reguardless of the pros and cons I strongly feel that this concept is truly fair when the higher, middle, and lower class can have the same opportunites, when it comes to this issue.
In conclusion can America truly follow a sustanable system of living, without steamrolling over the guy who does not have a lot of money. Indeed this is a great method and system of planning because inovation is so strong within it, but if all sides can not meet at the table and benefit from having a good life , then in my personal opinion this is another system that can make many people the “Outcast”
1) http://architectureandurbanism.blogspot.com/2010/07/peter-katz-new-urbanism-toward.html
2) http://history.searchbeat.com/history-urban.htm
3) http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/02/21/green-communities-part-1-new-urbanism/
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism
5) http://spykefleming.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-urbanists.html
Through the first quarter of the 20th century, the United States developed mainly in the form of compact, mixed-use neighborhoods. The pattern began to change with the emergence of modern architecture and zoning and the ascent of the automobile. After World War II, a new system of development was implemented nationwide – one that, instead of being based on neighborhoods, was based on a rigorous separation of uses. The separate-use system has become known as sprawl or conventional suburban development (CSD). The majority of US citizens now live in suburban communities built during the last 60 years. Although CSD has been popular, it carries a significant price. Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even when the population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for the great majority of household and commuter trips.
New Urbanism is a town planning movement away from the spread-out, car-centered suburbs that have come to dominate the American landscape over the past 50 years. New Urbanism is a reaction to sprawl and it’s an urban design movement which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It is based on principles of planning and architecture that work together to create human-scale, walkable communities. The new urbanists take a wide variety of approaches – some work exclusively on infill projects, others focus on transit-oriented development, still others are attempting to transform the suburbs. Many are working in all of these categories. It includes traditional architects and those with modernist sensibilities. All, however, believe in the power and ability of traditional neighborhoods to restore functional, sustainable communities. The trend had its roots in the work of visionary architects, planners, and developers in the 1970s and 1980s who coalesced into a unified group in the 1990s.
On the regional scale, the New Urbanism is having a growing influence on how and where metropolitan regions choose to grow. Large-scale planning initiatives now commonly incorporate new urban planning ideas – such as walkable neighborhoods, transit-oriented development, and sociable, pedestrian-scale streets. Form-based codes and better-connected street networks are two instruments by which new urban ideas can be implemented at the scale of the region.
Principles of urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of scales from single building to an entire community. The core principles of new urbanism are walkability, less emphasis on car, mixed neighborhood, and community. Basic goods and services are available within a few minute walk. Sidewalks, narrow streets, and proximity of commercial and residential areas facilitate walking. Garages are hidden in alleys, out of sight. Parallel street parking replaces the parking lot. Traditional suburbs put homes in one area, schools in another and shopping in yet a third. New urbanists mix building types, sizes and prices. A modest townhouse or duplex cozies up to large single family home, which may have a rental apartment over its garage. Apartments are built over street level stores. The new urbanist design encourages human interaction by keeping houses close to each other and close to the street. Residents gather on front porches, in nearby parks and on open plazas. Neighbors share driveways, walkways and alleys.
The critics of the new urbanism argue that residents care more about privacy and security than community, and that most people want detached homes with yards and multi-car garages at arm’s length from the folks next door. The idea of sharing a block with neighbors who make far lower incomes might also frighten some people. Critics also charge that new urbanism has largely failed to live up to its own goals for diversity, and attracts mostly affluent residents. It has been criticized for asserting universal principles of design instead of attending to local conditions.
Edmund Bacon said “The building of cities is one of man’s greatest achievements.”
The New Urbanism is said to have captured the imagination of the American public like no urban planning movement in decades. New Urbanisms is seeking to redefine the nature of the American metropolis by reintroducing traditional notions of neighborhood design and fitting those ideas into a variety of urban and suburban settings. The New Urbanism began as a reaction to conventional suburban planning as it has been practiced in the United States since the 1940s. New Urbanisms views the decentralized, auto-oriented suburb as a recipe for disaster. They blame these suburbs for ever-increasing congestion on arterial roads, a lack of meaningful civic life, the loss of open space, limited opportunities for children and others without cars, and a general discontent among suburbanites.
Under the banners of new urbanism planners are increasingly building suburbs using the old Main Street Model: a web of pedestrians-friendly streets cradling a mass transit served town center surrounded by a mix of housing alternatives. New Urbanism is meant to to save open space, reduce car dependence and pollution ( National Geographic). New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walk able, compact, vibrant, mixed use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages.
New Urbanism is the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for every society. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a reordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism involves fixing and infilling cities, as well as the creation of compact new towns.
The principles of New Urbanism are: (1) Walk ability (2) Connectivity (3) Mixed Use & Diversity (4 ) Mixed Housing (5) Quality Architecture & Urban Design (6) Traditional Neighborhood Structure (7) Increased Density (8) Smart Transportation (9) Sustainability (10) Quality of Life.
New Urbanism provides a better quality for residents, businesses, developers, and municipalities. New Urbanists support regional planning for open space, context-appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in urban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, and green building.
During the rebuilding process of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, how can the New Urbanism principles be applied without removing the culture New Orleans is known for such as their music and art?
The New Urbanism is a movement that seeks to restore a civil realm to urban planning and a sense of place to our communities. It is a tangible response to the failed Modernist planning that has resulted in unchecked suburban sprawl, slavish dependence on the automobile, and the abandonment and decay of our cities. Katz, who heads a marketing and design firm, brings together in this informative and accessible book the voices and case studies of the young architects and planners who practice the New Urbanism–Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, among them. They gear their designs to the scale of the pedestrian and seek to promote a symbiotic relationship between urban development and public transportation. An often published example of this movement is the community of Seaside, Florida. Extensively illustrated with plans, diagrams, and color photographs and renderings, this highly instructive book is a must for architecture and urban planning collections, and suitable for general readers.
– Thomas P.R. Nugent, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Synopsis:
Reacting to yesterday’s suburban sprawl and failed urban development, a coalition has formed of innovative architects, developers and builders in what has become known as the “New Urbanism”. This movement seeks to bring back the basic amenities that make communities work, such as culturally diverse housing; easy access to work, play and schools; and efficient transportation. “The New Urbanism” shows this movement in action in “edge cities” on the fringes of existing metropolitan areas as well as in separate satellite communities. Featuring the work of such planners and architects as Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Peter Calthorpe, and complete with project specifications and feedback from participants, the book provides architectural and planning professionals with tips and techniques for building the livable cities of the 21st century.
– Peter Katz, Vincent, Jr. Scully
New Urbanism is a way to design cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Although the term called New Urbanism became popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the principles of New Urbanism are actually quite old. New Urbanist town planners, developers, architects, and designers try to cut down traffic and eliminate sprawl.
A New Urbanist neighborhood is similar to an old European village with homes and businesses bunched together. Instead of traveling on highways, residents of New Urbanist neighborhoods can walk to shops, businesses, theaters, schools, parks, and other important services. Buildings and recreational areas are arranged to foster a sense of community closeness. New Urbanist designers also place an importance on earth-friendly architecture, energy conservation, historic preservation, and accessibility. Although New Urbanism has become popular, it has many critics. Some people say that New Urbanist towns are too carefully planned and feel artificial. Other critics say that New Urbanist towns take away personal freedom because residents must follow strict zoning rules before they build or remodel.
Researchers, call it New Urbanism which is the promotion of creating a better quality of life, and to ensure us a better life for our future. It is most important to planning for our f
Urbanism is being called the New Urbanism, which is about creating a better life for our future. It promotes a built enviornment, to form complete cities, town, villages, and nieghborhoods. Planning has help build communities for centuries around the world. New Urbanism is creativity for communities, this includes restoration of conventional development, but gathers integrated fashion, in form of complete communities. This planning promotes more housing work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and facilities for our daily lives of residents, and communities. It also promotes the increase of trains, and light rail, intestead of more highways and roads.
There are ten principles of New Urbanism. They are Walkability, connectivity mixed- use and Diversity, mix housing. Walkability should be a 10-minute walk of home and work. Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street, porches, window and doors; tree-lined streets; on streets hidden, parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets0. The pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases. Connectivity interconnected street grid network disperses traffic and eases walking. Promotes high quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking pleasurable. The Mixed-use and Diversity include a mix of shops, offices, apartments and homes on site. The mixed housing is a range of types , sizes and prices in closer proximity. A Quality Architecture and Urban Design put emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human confort, and creating a sense of place. These surroundings provide nourishment for the human spirit. The increase of density, provides more buildings, residences, shops, and services closer for walking distances to promote a better service and resources for a more pleasurable life. Transportation played a key role in this plan, by encourageing residents to ride bikes, and roller blade, scooters for daily lives increase more people to be healthy. Sustainablity in this plan is to increase energy efficiency, less use of finite fuels, more local production, more walking, less driving. Also eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems. Primarly to increase the quality of life, and to uplift people’s human spirit.
The benefits of Urbanism will and has increase the quality of life. By having a better sense of place and community identity with more unique architecture open space to enjoy that will remain open space; More efficient use of your tax money with less spent on the lay out of roads. Urbansism benefits businesses through the increase of sales due to more foot traffic and people spending less on cars and gas. By building more it provides lower rent due to smaller spaces and smaller parking lots. This is effective becaue the restoration is in walking distance. It is beneficial to municipalities, because it stablizes tax base; less spent per capita on infrastructure and utilities than typical suburban develoment compact, high-density nature of projects; Increase taxes because more is being built in little space. Less crime and less spent on policing due to the presence of more people. The most effective way to implement Urbanism is to plan for it and write it into a zoning and development of a contract that directs all future development.
New Urbanism is centrally important to both land use and transportation as it is a
philosophy that has design and strategy implications affecting each in basically equal
parts. New Urbanism is considered a reaction between the suburban sprawl and development patterns. Suburban sprawl is typified by large lots, curving streets and cul-de-sacs, inadequate sidewalks, segregated land uses and auto oriented living. In contrast, developments designed in the New Urbanism style promote the traditional concept of a neighborhood with pedestrian friendly streets, common areas for community congregation, a modified grid pattern design, large front porches, rear alleys and detached backyard garages making for a community feel within the streetscape and increased interaction.
New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages. Currently, there are over 500 New Urbanist projects planned or under construction in the United States alone, half of which are in historic urban centers. An example of this concept can be see here in Baton Rouge, LA at Perkins Rowe.
NEW URBANISM is the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a re-ordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods – the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism involves fixing and infilling cities, as well as the creation of compact new towns and villages.
The principles of New Urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of sales from a single building to an entire community.
1. Walkability
2. Connectivity
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity
4. Mixed Housing
5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure
7. Increased Density
8. Smart Transportation
9. Sustainability
10. Quality of Life
In 1993, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was founded by a group of architects dedicated to “creating buildings, neighborhoods, and regions that provide a high quality of life for all residents, while protecting the natural environment”. Through the redesign of regions, neighborhoods, and buildings, new urbanists promise no less than the end of urban sprawl, the recreation of communities, and improvements in the quality of life. New urbanism has been hailed as the most significant movement in urban planning and architecture in this century (Song and Knaap, 2003).
Urbanism has received little formal analysis. The reasons are, Firstly, new urbanism is primarily about urban design, which is difficult to quantify and thus poorly suited for applying formal analytical tools; Secondly, new urbanism, like its close relative, smart growth, generally favors the use of government plans and regulations to address an ill-defined problem. Thus the movement is unlikely to draw the attention of those who favor formal analysis.
Song Y, Knaap GJ. New urbanism and housing values: a disaggregate assessment. Journal of Urban Economics 2003; 54: 218-238.
New urbanism is an urban design movement whose popularity increased from the beginning of the 1980s onwards. The goal of new urbanists is to reform all aspects of real estate development and urban planning. These include everything from urban retrofits, to suburban infill. The movement is particularly associated with the USA, with its “rediscovery” of urban patterns, which have had greater continuity in Europe.
There are some common elements of new urbanist design. New urbanist neighborhoods are walkable, and are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs. New urbanists support regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe these strategies are the best way to reduce the time people spend in traffic, to increase the supply of affordable housing, and to rein in urban sprawl. Many other issues, such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the renovation of brownfield land are also covered in the Charter of the New Urbanism, the movement’s seminal document. Because new urbanist designs include many of the features (like mixed use and emphasis on walkability) which characterized urban areas in the pre-automobile age, the movement is sometimes known as Traditional neighborhood design. A more pedestrian oriented variation that also has more emphasis on ecology, founded by Michael E. Arth in 1999, is called New Pedestrianism. New urbanism is in part a reform movement and, as such, has drawn criticism from all quarters of the political spectrum. Some members of right wing view new urbanism as a collectivist plot designed to rob Americans of their civil freedoms, property rights and free-flowing traffic. Some members of the left wing view new urbanism as an example of ccapitalistic excess, aligned with forces of greed that would purge the [underclass from urban areas for the benefit of the gentrifying elite. Academics have criticized New Urbanism as retrograde, bordering on fascist. Some environmentalists decry new urbanism as nothing more than conventional sprawl dressed up with superficial stylistic cues, while NIMBY activists routinely argue against new urbanism as being too dense, with too much mixed use and around-the-clock activity. Critics of new urbanism often accuse it of elevating aesthetics over practicality, subordinating good city planning principles to urban design dogma. Another charge is that the movement is grounded in nostalgia for a period in American history that may never have existed. A related charge is that the movement represents nothing truly new, as towns and neighborhoods were built on similar principles in the U.S. until the 1920s. However, perhaps the most frequent criticism of the movement is that some of the highest-profile projects—such as Celebration, Seaside, and The Glen in Glenview, Illinois—represent a form of sprawl themselves, in that they are built on what was previously open space. According to New Urban News, new urbanist developments as a group are approximately one-half infill and one-half greenfield land.
A stream of thought in sustainable development maintains that sustainabilty is primarily based on the combination of high density and transit service. To the extent that many new urbanist developments rely on automobile transport and serve the detached single family housing market, critics claim they fall short of being truly sustainable. However, a forthcoming rating and certification scheme for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND, should help to quantify the sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design; it is being developed by a partnership between the US Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Beyond cursory levels, say critics, the provision for cultural and social interchange in new urbanist towns is limited, and the permanent residential populations of new urbanist resort communities are comparatively small and culturally homogeneous. Critics claim that new urbanism is somewhat incomplete: while providing a basic framework for the improvement of the civic landscape, it does not entirely provide for the diversity necessary for city success. Critics call into question whether or not towns and cities are objects that can be “created,” or whether they are, in fact, the results of a process of cultural, social, political and religious interaction that the new urbanists seek to accelerate and simulate, in order to make their towns more palatable to their predominantly affluent (and, some argue, nostalgic) clientele.
Along similar lines of critique, New Urbanism is a normative, and not a substantive, approach to environmental design. As being normative, it relies on the exclusivity of norms and standards, and under the growing philosophical pressure of postmodern thought, New Urbanism continues to take a pounding of criticism by many design theorists.
To date, new urbanists have captured only a small share of the residential market, although to be sure, those new urbanist developments that are built are quickly purchased by interested homebuyers. Because they are familiar with the business aspects of the conventional suburban development retail model, particularly the strip mall format, developers continue to build conventional suburban projects, although new urbanist ideals are becoming more pervasive even with the development community.
Many of the criticisms leveled at New Urbanism have not been specifically applied to the New Pedestrianism variant.
New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s and continues to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning. New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards famous before the rise of the automobile and encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD). It is also closely related to Regionalism, Environmentalism and the broader concept of smart growth. The movement also includes a more pedestrian-oriented alternative known as New Pedestrianism. New Urbanists support regional planning for open space, context-appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in urban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the redevelopment of brownfield land. The most effective way to implement New Urbanism is to plan for it, and write it into zoning and development codes. This directs all future development into this form. New Urbanism is also most effective by using ten principles or concepts. The principles of urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of scales from a single building to an entire community. These principles include the following: Walkability: which have most places within a ten minute walk from work or home, pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets)
Connectivity: interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases walking, a hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alley, high quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking pleasurable Mixed-Use & Diversity: a mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site Mixed Housing: a range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity
Quality Architecture & Urban Design: emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of place Traditional Neighborhood Structure: discernable center and edge, public space at center, importance of quality public realm; public open space designed as civic art, contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute walk
Increased Density: more buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable place to live.
Smart Transportation: a network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and neighborhoods together or pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation
Sustainability: minimal environmental impact of development and its operations, eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems, energy efficiency, more walking, less driving
Quality of Life: taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living, and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit
Both pros and cons exist with New Urbanism do exist. For the resident, new urbanism offer a higher quality of life, better places to live, work, and play. It also offer the people a higher and more stable property value with less traffic congestion and less driving just to name a few. For the business owner, a New Urbanism community helps attract and retain sustainability. Along with valuable employees, new urbanism presents businesses with increased sales and profit due to more foot traffic and people spending less on cars and gas. The New Urbanism often allows developers to construct commercial buildings in areas where the use might not otherwise be permitted. New Urbanism benefits some municipalities because it allows higher densities for developers that build the New Urbanism, because the concept is geared to enable a compact mix of uses to work together harmoniously. The most important obstacle to overcome is the restrictive and incorrect zoning codes currently in force in most municipalities. Current codes do not allow New Urbanism to be built, but do allow sprawl. Adopting a TND ordinance and/or a system of ‘smart codes’ allows New Urbanism to be built easily without having to rewrite existing codes. Critics of New Urbanism argue that at the notion of neighborhood patterns can lead to social breakdown. They argue that Americans enjoy living in single-family homes with large, private yards. Their view, more sprawl means less crowding and an improved quality of life. For New Urbanists, however, sprawl not merely unattractive. New Urbanists believe that neighborhoods surrounded by sprawl are dehumanizing. The New Urbanist believe suburban neighborhoods foster a sense of isolation and can breed discontent.
New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s and continues to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning. (Wikipedia)
In the mid 1900’s the shift in governmental policies seem to promote the complete opposite of Urbanism with the rise and development of the middle class. Single family homes were build therefore, a greater distance would need to be covered to commute to work and buy goods. Also in this time period the automobile was becoming affordable which allowed humans to stretch even farther from home to work.
Taking this brief history into account if we could fast-forward 70 years we come to present day and we see a society that is based solely on transportation of some sort that is completely reliant on non-renewable resources. Taking in to account America only has around three hundred million people, all who rely on transportation from non-renewable resources. Now switch over to Asia, Asia contains over 60% of the world’s population and China and India alone have over 4 billion people. Asian counties are having tremendous population growth as well as economic, with a rise in population and more money to spend these countries are soon to follow the same trend set by the US over half a century ago. China’s SUV sales jumped in May 90.5 percent compared to May 2009. That’s according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) via Gasgoo (TAC). This is a prime example of how economic growth in Asia is greatly affecting environmental issues and urbanism.
In conclusion, action must be taken rapidly to conserve the environment while there is still time. Once cities are built it is hard to make the much need changes to revert back from automobile commuter base to a walkable neighborhood.
New Urbanism is the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and is essentially a re-ordering of the built environment into the form of complete cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods – the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism involves fixing and infilling cities, as well as the creation of compact new towns and villages. New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse,
Walkable-10-minute walk of home and work -Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets) -Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases.
Connectivity-interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases walking
-A hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys
-High quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking pleasurable
Mixed-Use & Diversity-mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings
-Diversity of people – of ages, income levels, cultures, and races
Mixed Housing-A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity
Quality Architecture & Urban Design-Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within community. Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human spirit
Traditional Neighborhood Structure-Discernable center and edge -Public space at center
-Importance of quality public realm; public open space designed as civic art
-Contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute walk
-Transect planning: Highest densities at town center; progressively less dense towards the edge. The transect is an analytical system that conceptualizes mutually reinforcing elements, creating a series of specific natural habitats and/or urban lifestyle settings.
Increased Density-More buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable place to live.-New Urbanism design principles are applied at the full range of densities from small towns, to large cities.
Smart Transportation-A network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and neighborhoods together -Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation.
Sustainability-Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations
-Eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems -Energy efficiency
-Less use of finite fuels -More local production -More walking, less driving
Quality of Life-Taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living, and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit
We now spend more time than ever in stressful traffic, and nearly 30% our income on car payments, gas, maintenance, and insurance. A great majority of our tax dollars go towards the endless building of roads and highways, with little left for valuable things like education, civic buildings, quality architecture and public spaces, or the building of new modern train systems. Our
New Urbanism as a movement or design concept is the term used to describe the work of architects and planners who work to re-connect people with the environment and each other through purposeful design of the areas of work, shopping, and recreation while assuring some significant transportation improvement to work. The primary architects of this design philosophy were Duany and Plater-Zyberk and their first work was at a development called Seaside, Florida. The development was constructed from 1980 to 1983 and was an instant success and high profile change from the prevailing condominium and block like construction of the time. Their design included many subtleties such as front porches close to the street, which are intended to place people in proximity of each other for ease of conversation and relationships. The Seaside design maintained the quality of the beach view for all to enjoy and reduced the lot sizes to increase density and therefore maximize financial support for the system of design. New Urbanism became an answer for the ever increasing and inevitable urban sprawl facing the nation and gave an option to “opt out” of this mindless, unplanned development which was fueled by interstate corridors and a concept of personal “freedom” by getting away from the urban area. The development of Perkins Rowe is based somewhat on this model with shopping, housing, exercise center, friendly streets, open squares, work, etc. within walking range. It can be argued that much of East Baton Rouge Parish has been developed with no plan and the suburban sprawl has reigned. New Urbanism could provide a refreshing alternative to sprawl if developers embraced the idea and would work closely with public officials to accomplish it. As it is, developers are still working on “hub” developments that are based on lot sales and have little connection with any other public support feature. This type of development is consistent with the reality of job growth and industry type in this parish. There have a few main employers that require driving time to reach and many commuters do not mind the traveling time even though lots are getting smaller and more expensive in the suburbs. If there were more industry and diversity of work within the Parish than a concept such as New Urbanism could flourish. This is actually what we see in Spanish Town and a few other locations in the city where services and work are actually within walking distance or a very short commute. The detractions of New Urbanism then can be summed up in what we have come to understand are the realities of having to work in places that are not near living quarters. I am sure this is frustrating for a great many citizens and our officials are constantly working to pull in more business and job growth opportunities for them only with limited success. The rise of convenience stores, gas stations, strip malls, etc. are a feeble attempt to provide services for the hub communities but they can never be aesthetic and pleasing. We have a very utilitarian life style that many in planned and more sophisticated communities would find appalling. There is a lot of talk about rail transportation for the Parish to combat the sprawl traffic congestion and I personally feel that it would be the best solution to this problem and would also facilitate development more along the lines of New Urbanism.
“Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2011. .