• Main street as a microcosm of the world

    With a stronger identity and coordinated planning for Woodlawn Avenue, Beechmont may be the next hot neighborhood in Louisville.
    CNU partnered with a strong nonprofit, the Center for Neighborhoods (CFN), on a highly productive Legacy Project to restore and reimagine the future of Woodlawn Avenue, the commercial heart of the Beechmont neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. “In three days, we got to the point of fully focusing...Read more

  • The once and future neighborhood

    Urban planner Emily Talen tells the history of the neighborhood, why it became a controversial topic, and how the “everyday neighborhood” could help a diverse America come together.
    In the beginning, there was the neighborhood. It was where people lived, for thousands of years. “Neighborhoods are a ubiquitous condition of human settlement, found in all time periods, in all cultures, and in both rural and urban contexts,” writes Emily Talen, Professor of Urbanism at the...Read more

  • Small city invests in downtown

    With a new urban vision and context-based street design, Olean has taken a bold step to revive its economy and social life.
    Olean, a small city in isolated southwestern New York State, has transformed its wide main street, North Union Street, using five roundabouts and a new tree-lined center median to calm traffic and shorten pedestrian crossing distances. Four lanes of traffic were reduced to two and several traffic...Read more

  • ‘Aging with grace’: The next big challenge for urbanists

    Designing and establishing systems for walkable communities that support aging residents are important planning and development tasks for the coming decades.
    In late October, experts gathered in Seaside, Florida, to confront one of the greatest demographic issues of our times: the aging of the American population. With the Baby Boom soon to become the Elder Boom, Seaside founder Robert Davis concluded that New Urbanists should be figuring out how the...Read more