|
|
 |
|
PROVIDENCE, June 3. New Urbanists have already proved that the ultimate consumers of mixed-use development - people who live, work, and play in well-thought-out urban environments - will seek out and maybe even pay extra for the chance. Still, it's been a little harder to convince public officials and real estate investors schooled only in suburban approaches. The tipping point may be approaching, however.
Leading off the Friday sessions at CNU XIV was a developers' "talk show," moderated by veteran New Urbanist market researcher Todd Zimmerman (click here for Todd's argument for the "coming convergence" of demographic factors supporting downtown redevelopment). The key message from these major-project developers: Don't confuse our interest in New Urbanism with charity.
"It's not necessarily about the need to do good," said David Pace, managing director of the Baldwin Park Development Company in Florida. Projects "have to do well." Texas developer Lucy Billingsley echoed the sentiments. "I want to be aware of and responsive to the market," she said. The fact that so many bottom-line oriented real estate investment pros are calling themselves New Urbanist developers means, said Pace, "they're recognizing that making better places pays off in the long run."
It's a theme heard often in Friday's sessions, affirming the emphasis on implementation in this, the 14th annual Congress of the New Urbanism. The sense that there's a dramatic shift in the works inspired the late plenary "Urbanism at the Tipping Point," with Urban Land Institute chair Marilyn Jordan Taylor and CNU co-founder Andres Duany. Taylor walked a packed audience through trend projections that suggest the not-so-distant future will be about accommodating urbanism at new levels of density - or else. And Duany hammered home the "tipping point" theme with examples of New Urbanism's capacity to rescue human habitat from the broken promises of suburban sprawl.
A standing-room-only crowd at the afternoon "Sprawl Brawl" seminar heard profs Robert Bruegmann and Emily Talen and Smart Growth Education Director Anthony Flint take the pulse of sprawl in America (See a longer report here). The big change in road engineering got an airing with a seminar on the new ITE Urban Thoroughfares Project (see story here). The afternoon Council focusing on pattern books provided a great way to get up to speed on these tools for stimulating appropriate development. (see story here). Participants received an insider's view of How the Charter Awards Were Won. (click here). And Duany got to entertain attendees with another warning about changing times, the decline of "male space" in contemporary homes.
If we need a lab for coping with rapid change, we have it in the still-evolving aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Mississippi and Louisiana. New Urbanists have been prominent in the most successful post-hurricane planning efforts. Marianne Cusato, designer of the first prototype Katrina Cottage, introduced Duany in the "Tipping Point" plenary by crediting him with the assignment that changed her professional life - the chance to apply high levels of design to very small space. Cusato's brief presentation of Katrina Cottage slides is a teaser on Friday is a precursor to the wider ranging discussion on hurricane recovery scheduled for today (see details on the Gulf Coast Renewal Council here). Gavin Smith, director of the Mississippi Governor's Office of Recovery and Renewal will join a distinguished line-up of design consultants who have been working with Mississippi Gulf Coast communities in the months since Katrina.
If you're ready to look more closely at influences likely to affect New Urbanism in the very long run, check out James Kunstler and Julian Darley talking about what Kunstler has identified as "the long emergency" of steady increases in the prices of fossil-fuel driven energy. And consider attending the afternoon session, "Affordability Follows Form," which sports a long list of speakers addressing the next humongous issue facing New Urbanism. How designers handle the rising costs of housing will define the movement's future as much as any single challenge.
|
|
 View NU’s
Packed Day
|
|
|
