NEW URBANISM’S TRUE ROOTS part 5

NEW URBANISM’S TRUE ROOTS:
GREENFIELD TRADITIONAL TOWN PLANNING OR URBAN INFILL REVITALIZATION

By Steve Wright

As New Urbanism looks back over its first decade-plus of existence, a key question arises: are the movement’s true roots in building new towns such as Seaside and Kentlands, or should they lie in rebuilding Main Street America?

“New Urbanism is guiding development across the spectrum, including urban centers (both in the downtowns and the often decaying neighborhoods surrounding them) suburbs and exurbs, small cities and small towns. There will certainly continue to be substantial greenfield development across the country. If we turn our back on it, we lose the opportunity to design sustainable new towns, instead of continuing placeless sprawl. At the same time, New Urbanism is shaping the downtown revivals going on in many cities across the country, and this also is a chance not to be missed,” Don Johnson said.

Johnson gave these quotes during a 2004 interview back when he was a development associate with the architecture, planning and development firm Becker + Becker Fairfield, CT.

Johnson believed that most New Urbanists view the new towns vs. urban infill debate as a false dichotomy.

Johnson said it is clear that New Urbanist ideas are filtering into professions such as real estate development, community development, city planning, traffic engineering and ecology.

“I think New Urbanism has definitely helped raise the standard of expectations of people when imagining what is possible,” he said. “I think New Urbanism will become more mainstream, and many of the ideas which seemed revolutionary 10 years ago and perhaps controversial now will be seen as accepted wisdom.”

Wright is an award-winning journalist who has written about growth, development, architecture, town planning and urban issues for more than a decade. He lives and works in a traditional, walkable, sustainable community in a restored historic home in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana.