Opinions on the life/death of New Urbanism
The ‘New Urbanism’ Movement Might Be Dead
City revival has ceased to be a radical idea, and that’s a good thing.
In the October issue of the magazine Governing, William Fulton director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University wrote a short opinion piece suggesting the possible death of New Urbanism. Being a short opinion piece it was low on numbers and facts but high on anecdotal personal thoughts.
In response are two articles for you:
1- The death of New Urbanism is greatly exaggerated
Restoring the human-scale to the modern built environment is a long-term task, key to human health and welfare, that has barely begun.
This response argues that rather than proving that New Urbanism is in decline, Fulton has shown how necessary it is. The response suggests that the challenges facing cities and towns today require doubling of efforts by New Urbanists.
2- New Urbanism isn’t dead – but thanks to climate change, it is evolving
Here is how we got drawn into this little back and forth. City Metric suggests that Climate Change is a main factor in reviving and reinvigorating the New Urbanists. This article is interesting because it provides you with a wealth of references from the leading lights in the field now to studies and examples.
Happy reading and hope you come up with a position on the topic after reading the articles and digging deeper on the issues.