imperatives :

climate instabilitymitigating suburbanites’ high carbon footprints and adapting to severe weather

rising energy costs living compactly reduces energy use in buildings and for transportation

poverty and social segregationsince 2005 more Americans in poverty live in suburbs than cities

public healthsuburban living raises risk of obesity, suicide, and death by automobile crashes

Affordabilitythe savings of “drive ‘til you qualify” are wiped out by rising transportation costs

market driver headlines :

demographic shiftssuburbia simply isn’t “family-focused” anymore. 2/3 of suburban hh’s don’t have kids, 85% of new hh’s won’t through 2025 . Millenials are looking for nightlife and value wifi and connectedness more than cars.

the new centersas metros have expanded, first ring suburbs and commercial corridors now have central locations, often meriting densification and urbanization of their “underperforming asphalt”.

relocalization of people, place, landscape, and activity

tactical urbanism, crowdsourceing, and collaborative consumption

cheap space for community-serving uses

“third places”

placemaking through :

Re-inhabitation

Congress for the New Urbanism: Next Genshort-term projects for long-term gains

pavement to plaza depave

parklet yarnbombing

Walk posters guerrilla grafting

From strip to job and town centerWillingboro Town CenterWillingboro, NJCroxton Collaborative Architects

19601. Boscov’s Furniture2. Sears3. Woolworths4. Power plant

20095. Mail-service pharmacy6. Office building7. Public library w/ retail8. Community College9. Town Commons10. Townhouses11. Planted swales

Courtesty Croxton Collaborative Architects MTC Aerial Photography

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100 Oaks Mall & Medical Center, Nashville TN: Medical center on 2nd floor of once-dying mall

Wellspring Medical & Wellness Center, Woodburn, OR in former K-Mart

Collinwood Recreation Center, Collinwood OH: from dead Big Lots store to public recreation center with bioswales on former parking lot

RWJ Hamilton Ctr for Health & Wellnesss, Hamilton, NJ: Former Ames Dept Store

Updating the “L” strip mall as a “third place” with portals to the neighborhood Lake Grove Shopping Center, Lake Oswego, OR: Eric Shoemaker Beam Development

From “back” to a new front to the neighborhood

urbanize – organize buildings to create connected outdoor rooms and walkable street networks

densify and diversify: reward the pedestrian eye

green the infrastructure

placemaking through:

Redevelopment

Suburban Form Urban Form-buildings as discrete, stand-alone objects -buildings align and front onto the street-open space lacks form, is dominated by cars -open space is shaped by the buildings; outdoor room-blocks and streets are large, unconducive to walking -blocks and streets are smaller, more walkable,safer-single uses, separated infrastructure systems -mixed uses, more integrated infrastructure systems

From dead mall to green downtownBelmar, Lakewood, CO: Continuum Partners; Elkus Manfredi Architects, Civitas Inc.

transit triggers infill of an office parkUniversity Town Center, Hyattsville, MDPrince George’s Metro Center, Inc.; Parker Rodriguez, RTKL Associates, WDG Architecture

1980 2009

From a park-n-ride + mall to a high-design civic centre geothermal TOD Surrey Surrey Central City, Surrey, BC; Simon Frasier University, Bing Thom Architects, Incsource: Dunham-Jones, Williamson, 2009

Library Classrooms above shopping mall

Phase 1: college classrooms built above mall, + new high rise

Recapturing traffic islands for redevelopment while making walkable intersectionsFort Totten MetroRail stop, Washington DC Planning Department, WAMATA

Source: Washington DC Planning Dept website

Intersection retrofit and public placemaking as catalyst Normal Illinois Roundabout, Normal Illinois: Doug Farr Associates, Hoerr Schauer Landscape

Photoz; G. Komar

From 5-lane arterial to 2-lane Main Street with multi-use parking RamblasLancaster, CA: Moule & Polyzoides

retrofitting land use, transportation and energy on a commercial corridorCambie Corridor, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver City Planning Department

reconstruct local ecology, daylight culverted streams, and clean run-off

add parks to increase adjacent property values

food and energy production

carbon sequestration

placemaking through:

Regreening

from mall parking lot to TOD with water treatment bioswale as park amenityNorthgate Urban Center, North Seattle, WA: LEED-ND pilot program Thornton Place, Mithun Architects for Stellar Holdings & Lorig Associates

• Added 530 units of housing at net 96 units/acre (another 1800 coming?)• Increased open space within the Northgate Urban Center by 50%• Provided pedestrian links that shortened walking distances by 50% from several adjacent neighborhoods

Source: Dunham-Jones, Williamson 2011

2000 condos to replace 200 apts?

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel: City of Seattle, SvR Design• Reduced impervious surface by 78%

• Designed to remove an estimated 40-80% of suspended solids from 91% of the avg annual stormwater runoff from the 680-acre drainage basin

• Created new habitat: native birds were observed within one month and native volunteer plants have gotten established with the 85% native species that were planted. Source: Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defence Council

• Adds an estimated 30% increase in adjacent property values

From urban mall to park ringed with urban housing Columbus City Center Park, Columbus OH

Target retrofitting more strategically at the metro scale

Support new tools: Form-Based Codes, Transfer of Development Rights, Health Impact Assessments, Retrofittability Analyses, Greyfield Audits, etc. Replace “drive ‘til you qualify” with compact housing with affordable transit by retrofitting commercial strip corridors into transit-served boulevards

Come to CNU 21 in Salt Lake City May 29-June 1

strategy:

Next Steps

From edge city sprawl to developer-driven 430-acre TODWhite Flint, MD; White Flint Partnership, Washington Metropolitan Planning Council

1. Permits development of a new downtown over next 20 years

2. Dedicated-lane BRT circulators outward from Metro Station

3. 10,000 residential units, 2600 of them “affordable”

4. Commercial space up from 14mil s.f to 20mil

5. Limited parking6. High-rises up to 30-stories7. Generate $6-7bil in revenue for the

county

From edge city sprawl to developer-driven 430-acre TODWhite Flint, MD- North Bethesda Market East & Market II; JBG Companies

Connecting the Dots: Retrofitting the airport, mall, chemical plant and corridorAirport Boulevard, Austin TX: City of Austin, Gateway Planning Group

• Healthy Communities

• Aging in Place: Rethinking Retirement

• Resilience planning and adaptation to local climate change, local food

• Local/district energy, net zero energy, low carbon communities

• Collaborative Economies: bike-sharing, scooter-sharing

• Using social media to enhance community building

strategy:

Emerging Trends

Partnering to Remove Obstacles to Urbanism by Reforming Standards and Practices

Past Initiatives: HOPE VI Mixed- Income Communities LEED-NDCNU/ITE Manual on Walkable Urban Thoroughfares

Emerging Initiatives: Tactical Urbanism, Urban Agricutlure, Code Reform, New Urbanism in China