Getting Our Communities Right

Diversity. Human scale. Restoring and preserving buildings. Taking a regional perspective. Each of these four principles is critical to the design and development of communities that will withstand time and change, says ULI fall meeting keynote speaker Peter Calthorpe. As the 2006 laureate of the ULI JC Nichols Prize for Visionary Urban Development, he should know what it takes to get our communities right. Calthorpe, a co-founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, is quick to point out that new urbanism takes on many forms, and should not be pigeonholed into one design concept. The basic concept of using less land to accommodate more growth, he says, can be achieved in innumerable ways that reflect the character, history and heritage of a particular area.

What do you consider new urbanism? When you design or develop, is what you are doing a conscious effort to achieve a product branded as a new urbanist community? Give us your thoughts in the comments section.