New Urbanism is an urban design movement that started in the United States during the early 1980s. It promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods with a variety of housing and job types. This movement has slowly influenced many areas, including real estate development, urban planning, and how cities use land. New Urbanism aims to solve problems caused by urban sprawl and the growth of suburbs after World War II.

This movement is inspired by urban design methods that were common before the rise of the automobile in the early 20th century. It includes principles such as traditional neighborhood development (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD). These ideas are based on two main goals: creating a sense of community and using practices that protect the environment.

New Urbanists support planning efforts that protect open spaces, use designs that fit the local area, provide necessary infrastructure like sports facilities, libraries, and community centers, and balance the number of jobs and homes. Supporters believe these strategies can reduce traffic by encouraging walking, biking, and public transportation. They also want to increase access to affordable housing and control the spread of suburbs. The Charter of the New Urbanism includes topics like preserving historic buildings, creating safe streets, using green building methods, and rebuilding land that was previously polluted. The ten Principles of Intelligent Urbanism also provide guidelines for these efforts.

In terms of architecture, New Urbanist projects often use a mix of styles, such as New Classical, Contemporary traditional, Postmodern, or Vernacular. However, not all projects follow this pattern.

Background

New Urbanism became more defined in the 1970s and 1980s because of the ideas about city design shared by architect Léon Krier and the pattern language theories of Christopher Alexander. The term "New Urbanism" was first used in this way during the mid-1980s, but it was not written as a proper noun with capital letters until the early 1990s.

In 1991, the Local Government Commission, a private nonprofit group in Sacramento, California, asked architects Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett, Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Daniel Solomon to create a set of community planning rules. These rules were called the Ahwahnee Principles, named after the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The commission shared the principles with about 100 government officials during its first Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials in the fall of 1991.

In 2009, co-founders Elizabeth Moule, Hank Dittmar, and Stefanos Polyzoides wrote the Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism. This document explained how New Urbanism connects to sustainability. The Canons describe a set of rules for building human settlements that focus on the relationship between construction, community life, and protecting the natural world. They encourage using passive heating and cooling methods, materials from local areas, and creating a "culture of permanence."

Defining elements

Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, noticed mixed-use streets with corner shops, front porches, and a variety of well-built homes while living in a Victorian neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. They and their colleagues identified the following patterns:

• The neighborhood has a clearly visible center, often a square, park, or busy street corner. A transit stop is located at this center.
• Most homes are within a five-minute walk of the center, which is about 0.25 miles (0.40 km).
• The neighborhood includes different types of homes—such as houses, rowhouses, and apartments—so that people of all ages, family sizes, and income levels can find places to live.
• At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices that provide the weekly needs of households.
• Each home may have a small building or garage apartment in the backyard. These can be used as rental units or workspaces, such as offices or workshops.
• An elementary school is close enough that most children can walk to it from their homes.
• Small playgrounds are within a tenth of a mile of every home.
• Streets in the neighborhood form a connected network, offering many paths for walking and driving to reach destinations.
• Streets are narrow and lined with trees, which slow traffic and make the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Buildings near the center are built close to the street, creating open outdoor spaces.
• Parking lots and garage doors are not placed on the street. Instead, parking is located at the back of buildings, usually accessed through alleys.
• Important buildings, such as those for community meetings, schools, or religious and cultural activities, are located at key spots like the end of streets or the neighborhood center.

Terminology

Many terms are similar to, part of, or overlap with New Urbanism. Terms like Neotraditional Development or Traditional Neighborhood Development are often linked to New Urbanism. These terms usually describe complete new towns or neighborhoods, often built in traditional architectural styles, rather than smaller projects that reuse existing land. The term Traditional Urbanism has also been used to describe New Urbanism by some who prefer not to use the word "new." The term "Walkable Urbanism" was suggested by developer and professor Christopher Leinberger. Some people debate whether Smart Growth and New Urbanism are the same or different, as both movements share some members and ideas. Placemaking is another term often used to describe New Urbanist efforts or those of similar groups. The term Transit-Oriented Development is sometimes said to have been created by New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe and is widely supported by New Urbanists. The term sustainable development is sometimes connected to New Urbanism because of its focus on environmental benefits, especially as the term "sustainability" became more common in the 2000s. However, this has caused confusion because the United Nations and Agenda 21 also use "sustainable development" to include issues like human development in developing countries, which go beyond the focus of New Urbanism. The term "livability" or "livable communities" was used during the Obama administration, though it was first used in the mid-1990s by the Local Government Commission.

Planning magazine discussed the increase in "urbanisms" in a 2011 article titled "A Short Guide to 60 of the Newest Urbanisms." Some New Urbanists have promoted terms like Sustainable Urbanism and Tactical Urbanism, which includes Guerrilla Urbanism as a smaller part. The term Tactical Urbanism was first used by Frenchman Michel de Certau in 1968 and reintroduced in 2011 by New Urbanist Mike Lydon and others who wrote the Tactical Urbanism Guide. In 2011, Andres Duany wrote a book that used the term Agrarian Urbanism to describe a type of New Urbanist town design focused on agriculture. In 2013, a group of New Urbanists, led by CNU co-founder Andres Duany, started a research project called Lean Urbanism, which aimed to connect Tactical Urbanism with New Urbanism.

Other terms have been created in response to New Urbanism to offer a contrast, alternative, or improvement. These include Everyday Urbanism by Harvard Professor Margaret Crawford, John Chase, and John Kaliski, Ecological Urbanism, and True Urbanism by architect Bernard Zyscovich. Landscape Urbanism was promoted by Charles Waldheim, who clearly stated it was against New Urbanism in his lectures at Harvard University. The book Landscape Urbanism and Its Discontents, edited by Andres Duany and Emily Talen, focused on the differences between Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism.

Organizations

In the United States, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the main group that supports the development of neighborhoods that are easy to walk in, have a mix of homes and businesses, and promote healthy living. CNU members follow the principles in the CNU Charter and the key features of New Urbanism, which include:

• Streets that are arranged in small, walkable blocks.
• A variety of housing options to meet the needs of people of different ages and income levels.
• Schools, stores, and other nearby places that are accessible by walking, biking, or public transportation.
• Public spaces that are welcoming and designed with buildings that make streets and areas more lively.

The CNU has held annual meetings since 1993. The first meeting took place in Alexandria, Virginia, with about 100 people attending. By 2008, the meetings had grown to attract 2,000 to 3,000 people each year.

Starting around 2004, the CNU created local and regional chapters. The first chapters were in New England and Florida. By 2011, there were 16 official chapters and groups planning to form 7 more. As of 2013, Canada had two full chapters: one in Ontario (CNU Ontario) and one in British Columbia (Cascadia), which also includes parts of the northwestern United States.

The CNU has members in Canada and other countries. Similar groups have formed in other parts of the world, such as the Council for European Urbanism (CEU), the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU), and the Australian Council for the New Urbanism.

By 2002, student groups supporting New Urbanism started forming at universities like the Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Georgia, University of Notre Dame, and University of Miami. In 2003, a group of young professionals and students met at the 11th CNU Congress in Washington, D.C., and began creating a "Manifesto of the Next Generation of New Urbanists." The group held its first major meeting in 2004 at the 12th CNU Congress in Chicago. Since 2014, the group has met yearly to focus on young professionals, students, new members, and sharing new ideas and diverse opinions within the New Urbanism movement. Projects linked to this group include the Living Urbanism publication, first released in 2008, and the first Tactical Urbanism Guide.

The CNU has created publications and research groups. These include New Urban News and the New Town Paper. Research groups have formed independent nonprofits to study specific topics, such as the Form-Based Codes Institute, The National Charrette Institute, and the Center for Applied Transect Studies.

In the United Kingdom, New Urbanist and European urbanism principles are taught and practiced by The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. These principles are also supported in the final report of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission, called Living with Beauty, and by groups like Create Streets, which use the idea of "Gentle Density" to promote New Urbanist ideas in public policy and help landowners and local governments with real projects.

Other organizations around the world also support New Urbanism, including INTBAU, A Vision of Europe, and the Council for European Urbanism.

The CNU and other national groups have partnered with similar organizations. Groups under the Smart Growth movement often work with the CNU. The CNU has also partnered on specific projects, such as working with the United States Green Building Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council to create the LEED for Neighborhood Development standards, and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers to develop a Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) Design manual.

Founded in 1984, the Seaside Institute is a nonprofit group that supports the New Urbanist movement. It is based in Seaside, Florida, and aims to inspire communities focused on sustainability, connectivity, and adaptability. Since 1993, the Seaside Institute has given the Seaside Prize to professionals who have made significant contributions to building and rebuilding communities that reflect New Urbanist principles.

Emerging New Urbanist (ENU) supports and advances the goals of the Charter of the New Urbanism.

Criticism

New Urbanism has received both positive and negative feedback from people across the political spectrum. Some people criticize it for being a plan to control society, for not solving problems related to fairness, and for limiting private businesses or supporting private developers by reducing rules.

Journalist Alex Marshall has criticized New Urbanism as a marketing strategy that uses old-fashioned images and empty promises to make suburban development look better. In a 1996 article in Metropolis magazine, Marshall called New Urbanism a "big lie." He wrote about this idea again in a newspaper column in The Washington Post the same year and in his first book, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken.

Some critics say there is no strong evidence to support the claim that mixed-income neighborhoods, a key part of New Urbanism, reduce poverty. While some studies show that mixed-income areas can help address poverty, research from one community in Canada challenges the idea that New Urbanism creates such diversity.

Others have criticized New Urbanism for focusing too much on cars and not enough on walking, biking, or public transportation. The Charter of the New Urbanism says communities should be designed for people on foot, using public transit, and for cars. However, some critics argue that communities should not allow cars at all and instead create car-free areas. Steve Melia suggests a method called "filtered permeability," which makes walking and biking paths more connected, giving pedestrians and cyclists an advantage over drivers, while still keeping car roads limited to improve safety and reduce crime.

To respond to claims that New Urbanism lacks proof of its environmental benefits, a system called LEED-ND was created by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). This system helps measure how sustainable New Urbanist neighborhoods are. Doug Farr, a New Urbanist and member of CNU, combined New Urbanism with LEED-ND to create a new idea called Sustainable Urbanism, which focuses on walkable, transit-friendly cities with efficient buildings and infrastructure.

Susan Subak has pointed out that while New Urbanism promotes walking and diverse buildings, the size of homes, especially the lack of large houses, may be more important for achieving low carbon emissions in communities.

New Urbanism has also been criticized for being a centrally planned, large-scale development that does not let people who will live in the area decide how construction happens. It has been criticized for using the same design rules everywhere instead of considering local needs and conditions.

Examples

New Urbanism is becoming more important in how cities and towns decide where and how to grow. At least fourteen large planning projects use ideas that connect transportation and land-use plans, and build neighborhoods as the basic part of a region. Miami, Florida has created the most detailed New Urbanist-based zoning rules used by a major U.S. city.

More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S. are being planned or built using New Urbanist ideas. Hundreds of small projects in cities and suburbs are being built to create walkable streets and blocks. In Maryland and other states, New Urbanist ideas are part of laws that support smart growth.

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) used New Urbanism ideas in a large program to rebuild public housing across the country. New Urbanists have planned and built hundreds of projects in areas where development already exists. Most were built by private companies, but some, including HUD projects, used public money.

Prospect New Town, founded in the mid-1990s, is Colorado's first full-scale New Urbanist community. Developer Kiki Wallace worked with the firm Duany Plater Zyberk & Company to build a 32-acre (13 ha) neighborhood on land that was once his family's tree farm. Now in its final stage of development, the neighborhood is expected to have about 2,000 people living in 585 homes on 340 lots. The development includes a town center in the middle of the residential area, with businesses like restaurants and offices. Streets are designed to show mountain views, and the town center is no more than five minutes walking from any part of the neighborhood.

In 2010, University Place in Memphis, Tennessee became the second U.S. neighborhood to earn a LEED certification. LEED ND standards combine ideas from smart growth, urban planning, and green building. These standards were created through a partnership between the U.S. Green Building Council, Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. University Place, developed by McCormack Baron Salazar, is a 405-unit, 30-acre (12 ha) neighborhood that includes homes, businesses, and public spaces. It was built on a former public housing site and includes a mix of incomes and uses.

The Cotton District in Starkville, Mississippi was the first New Urbanist development, starting in 1968 before the movement was officially formed. The district is near Mississippi State University and includes mostly rental homes for college students, along with restaurants, bars, and stores. The district is named after an old cotton mill nearby.

Seaside, Florida, the first fully New Urbanist town, began in 1981 on 80 acres (32 ha) of Florida Panhandle coastline. It was shown on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were built. It is now famous for its architecture and public spaces. Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the movie The Truman Show (1998). Lot prices rose from $15,000 in the 1980s to over $1 million today, with some homes costing more than $5 million.

The Mueller Community in Austin, Texas, is built on the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, which closed in 1999. When completed, the development will be worth $1.3 billion and include 4.2 million square feet (390,000 m²) of non-residential space, 650,000 square feet (60,000 m²) of retail, 4,600 homes, and 140 acres (57 ha) of open space. It is expected to create 10,000 permanent jobs. In 2012, Mueller had more electric cars per person than any other U.S. neighborhood, partly because of an incentive program.

The former Stapleton International Airport site in Denver and Aurora, Colorado, closed in 1995 and is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises. Stapleton is expected to have at least 30,000 residents, six schools, and 2 million square feet (190,000 m²) of retail. Construction began in 2001, and one of its major shopping areas, Northfield Stapleton, recently opened.

In 1997, San Antonio, Texas, created new rules called the Unified Development Code (UDC), influenced by New Urbanism. The UDC includes six types of development patterns for different areas: Conservation Development, Commercial Center Development, Office or Institutional Campus Development, Commercial Retrofit Development, Traditional Neighborhood Development, and Transit Oriented Development. Each area has specific rules to match existing development styles.

Mountain House, a new New Urbanist project in Tracy, California, started in 2001. It will include 12 villages, each with its own elementary school, park, and commercial area. A future train station, transit center, and bus system are also planned.

Mesa del Sol in New Mexico is the largest New Urbanist project in the U.S. Designed by architect Peter Calthorpe and developed by Forest City Enterprises, it may take 50 years to complete. When finished, it will have 38,000 homes for 100,000 people, a 1,400-acre (570 ha) industrial office park, four town centers, an urban center, and a downtown area that could become a twin city to Albuquerque.

I'On in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, is a traditional neighborhood development with New Urbanist-style architecture. It was designed by Dover, Kohl & Partners and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company and has over 750 single-family homes. Features include sidewalks, public parks, trails, and narrow streets with traffic-calming designs. Most homes have front porches at least 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, and the community has a dense, vertical feel.

Haile Plantation in Florida is a 2,600-home, 1,700-acre (690 ha) development near Gainesville. It includes two merchant centers, two public schools, and an 18-hole golf course. The village center was started in 1978 and completed in 2007.

In June 1996, the Walt Disney Company opened Celebration, a 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) town near Orlando, Florida. Celebration's downtown opened in October 1996 and used lessons from Seaside, which had a nearly completed downtown. Disney does not use the term "New Urbanism" to describe Celebration, calling it simply a "town." Celebration's downtown is now a popular tourist spot