CNU gets the royal treatment

In early October, senior CNU members Shelley Poticha, Andres Duany, Phyllis Bleiweis, Roberta Brandes Gratz, Jonathan Rose, Victor Deupi, and Paul Murrain joined 30 of the world’s most prominent advocates of traditional town planning for an extended visit and tour with the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles has long had an affinity for traditional town planning and New Urbanism. By bringing together advocates of good urbanism from Britain, Jordan, Norway, Germany, Australia, and the United States, he helped promote international solidarity on CNU’s issues. The Prince’s Foundation, the Prince’s philanthropic educational organization, has previously sponsored an institute for British architecture students who wished to learn about traditional architecture and urbanism. Today the foundation is exploring the possibility of becoming an international version of CNU. Poticha returned from the trip energized by what she saw. “There is tremendous interest in traditional neighborhoods all around the world,” she said. “CNU has a lot to offer. Even though each country is unique, it really helps that we’ve been working on these issues for so long.” A highlight of the meeting was a tour of Poundbury, the neighborhood developed by the Prince’s land trust, the Duchy of Cornwall. The tour was led by Leon Krier and included presentations by the lead developer, the project’s nonprofit social housing partner, and its traffic engineer. It demonstrated that traditional neighborhood development works in the UK. Thirty percent of the units in Poundbury are allocated for subsidized “social” housing, but the project is viewed as economically successful using even very conservative measures.