NEW URBANISM ROAD TRIP -- PART 1

NEW URBANISM ROAD TRIP -- PART 1

New Urbanism -- the world-wide movement toward building neighborhoods that are compact, walkable, transit-friendly, visually-appealing and diverse with a mix of incomes and uses such as residential, office and retail all on the same block – can trace much of its roots to Coral Gables.

The University of Miami School of Architecture helped launch New Urbanism a decade ago. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, the school’s dean, also is a principal in the New Urbanist architecture and planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ). She and her husband, Andres Duany, live in Coral Gables and patterned their theories for traditional neighborhood design after much of the “old urbanism” in The City Beautiful.

South Florida is home to some examples of great urbanism – places such as the Gables and Miami Beach -- where people can live, work and play in a master-planned, pedestrian-friendly area. The region also is home to conventional, sprawled development – suburban and exurban places where a car is a necessity, traffic is horrible and children can’t walk to shops, parks or other neighborhood conveniences.

New Urbanist architects, planners, builders and others seek to undo suburban sprawl and traffic-choked roads with transit, dense development and a mix of uses. Because South Florida is the cradle of the movement, dozens of examples of New Urbanism exist along the Treasure and Gold coasts.

Rather than taking a college class, reading a text book or searching the internet, the best way to get acquainted with New Urbanism is to hop in the car (yes, even planners of walkable communities concede the convenience of the automobile – though they strive to reduce people’s dependence on it) for a road trip. The auto will take us on a three-day tour, but the fun part of our “roadie” will be when we get out of the sedan and rely on shoe leather to explore the newly-built New Urbanist environment.

TOMORROW: ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA