\u201cNew Urbanism” development–creating mixed-use projects where people can live, work and play–is less about money-making ventures and more about preventing urban sprawl and congested freeways, according to many proponents of the concept. New Urbanism was the subject of a recent presentation by\u00a0 Andr\u00e9s Duany, founding principal at Duany Plater Zyberk & Co., at an event hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.\u201cDallas is a place that gets things done and looks forward to the future. That is one of the sad things about American culture now is that they are terrified of the future,\u201d said Duany, who is a founder and current board member of CNU. \u201cFor the first time in American history, growth is a bad name. In every other field growth is good, but when the city grows the citizens become weird.\u201d \tDuany criticized urban sprawl nationwide. \t\u201cWith the sprawl you see congestion on 12-lane highways. They\u2019re not being used for commerce,\u201d he said. \u201cThe private cost of living in suburbia \u2026 led to the cheapening of the houses and vinyl siding to offset the tremendous debt to the mandatory need for cars.\u201d \tThe result of this is new urbanism, Duany said. “New urbanism faces some uphill battles because it’s a new frontiers,\u201d he said, citing often well-meaning public input as a major hurdle for developers of new urbanist projects. \tBy opposing McMansions, Duany noted, residents may also prevent charming bungalow courts. \tDefending a neighborhood from a Wal-Mart may eliminate the possibility of pedestrian friendly community retail. What new urbanism promotes is diversity through mixed-use projects, in particular. There are four things that these urban designs require, Duany said. \t\u201cYou need places within walking distance to shop, live, go to school and work. This allows you to do with one car less and not to force you to drive,\u201d he said. \tWalkability is also one of a project’s must-haves. It isn\u2019t a climate that prevents people from walking to meet their needs, but a physical design that does not allow it, Duany contended. The third requirement is diversity. \tFor instance, a school located in a community needs the principal, janitor, teacher and secretary to be able to live nearby. \t\u201cNo community functions well unless everyone can live there. Society needs the full diversity of economic ranges,\u201d Duany said. The fourth thing new urbanism requires is a need for \u201ccompactness.\u201d Duany said lots don\u2019t have to be bigger to get privacy. While most people hate traffic and want their homes removed from areas with shops and schools, new urbanism is simply returning to the pre-World War days of living. \u201cMost people have been in both kinds of places. While traveling, visitors experience first rate urbanism in New York City, Santa Fe, Annapolis and Boston. And you know suburban sprawl very well,\u201d Duany said. \u201cThe only way to get density is if out the front door you have street life. You need to provide first rate street life or you\u2019ll never get it off the ground,\u201d he explained. \tPart of the problem, as Duany sees it, is that city codes don\u2019t allow neighborhoods with their daily needs within walking distance. He called the city models \u201cbroken\u201d with zoning requiring that these different types of structures being relegated to different areas. \t\u201cWe need to bring the corner store back to help the neighborhood, but what we need to do is make sure the typology is similar to the neighborhood with parking in the back. Those kinds of corner stores survive and are beloved. We\u2019re not talking about the 7-Eleven. Physical design has everything to do with this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need form-based codes with specifics such as the form of this corner is A, B and C. This is the setback, height, windows are vertical \u2026 make it harmonious. The current codes are not form-based but statistical.\u201d \t\u201cWe\u2019re getting better urbanism, but it is still not good enough and it will be inferior to places that got it right like Seattle and Portland,\u201d he said. \u201cDallas suffers from being a little too confident that you have it right. You\u2019ve been in such a lucky place, but you need to be much more precise in your expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cNew Urbanism” development–creating mixed-use projects where people can live, work and play–is less about money-making ventures and more about preventing urban sprawl and congested freeways, according to many proponents of the concept. New Urbanism was the subject of a recent presentation by\u00a0 Andr\u00e9s Duany, founding principal at Duany Plater Zyberk & Co., at an event…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003959658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n