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PROVIDENCE, June 4. As the 14th Congress for the New Urbanism enters its final day, the gathering's 2006 focus on getting great projects built turned out to be connected to a broader theme: Acknowledging reality and leveraging it in ways that change lives.
On Friday, Andres Duany reminded attendees that "the playing field is suddenly tipped in our direction" by emerging realities of life in America. Our movement first capitalized on the backlash to sprawl. Now comes a series of interconnected concerns about rising energy costs, a decline in affordable housing, threats to the global environment, and the vulnerability of badly planned, badly built communities in potential disaster zones.
For residents of the Gulf Coast, the 2005 hurricanes were powerful reality checks aggressively addressed by teams of New Urbanist specialists. On Saturday, attendees heard a challenge from Gavin Smith, director of the Mississippi Governor's Office of Recovery and Renewal to follow up their work in Gulf Coast hurricane zones with implementation strategies that take advantage of new federal and state aid. New projects are in the works.
Just in time to take advantage of an increasing concern for energy conservation and environmentally friendly design comes the new neighborhood design category for the U.S. Green Council's LEED certification. (See comments here) Carrying on the implementation theme of CNU XIV, one Saturday sessions offered advice for maximizing return through New Urbanist principles (See report here).
Amid all the enthusiasm for new opportunities came cautions about projects that fail to walk the talk of New Urbanism. (See this report on certifying New Urbanist projects; and this one warning about "jobs we shouldn't have taken.) And in case we were tempted to feel too comfortable with recent successes, we were reminded by more than one veteran that the movement has yet to engage the issue of affordable housing with the energy and fresh thinking the dilemma requires.
So what's next? Today's closing sessions include a chance to hear one of the movement's most respected voices, that of Leon Krier, who will receive the CNU's Athena Legacy Medal for lifetime achievement. And members will consider new amendments to the Charter (see proposals here).
It's worth remembering, before we leave Providence, that besides all the Big Issues the movement loves to tackle at these gatherings, there's also the enormous attraction of just getting together annually to enjoy one another's company. For parting impressions of this year's opportunity to do that, click here.
And we have our first video posted under our multimedia toolkit with much more audio video from The Congress to come.
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 View a Day Full of Activities
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