Few new urban communities have done better than

Few new urban communities have done better than Fairview Village in terms of incorporating civic uses. The 137-acre project in Fairview, Oregon, includes an elementary school, post office, and city hall. The latter two are full-fledged, functioning civic buildings, built close to the street according to urban design standards (the school is more conventional, yet it is connected to the project via a pedestrian bridge over a creek). The latest example is a new, 4,000 square foot county library with four apartments built above (see photo). The building is unique to the New Urbanism, and must be one of the only such examples anywhere in the US in the last half century. The developers, Holt & Haugh, worked out a long-term lease with Multnomah County, because the government did not want to own a building with residential tenants.