HUD shows commitment to New Urbanism

New grants fund projects by new urbanist designers. A recent round of $507 million in grants confirms that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is committed to revitalizing public housing using new urbanist principles. The grants were part of HUD’s Hope 6 program, which has received $3 billion in the last five years. Projects were approved in 22 cities, and generally included demolition, planning and construction costs. Eight projects were designed by firms specializing in the New Urbanism. The big winner was Torti Gallas and Partners/CHK, with five projects approved in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Chester (Pennsylvania), and Arlington (Virginia). Three other well-known new urbanist firms had one project approved each: Urban Design Associates (project in Charlotte); Calthorpe Associates (project in Oakland); and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (project in Greensboro, North Carolina). Not surprisingly, these projects generally display better design from a new urbanist perspective than the other 14 projects approved. The interconnected street networks, well-defined civic spaces, architecture based on local precedent, mix of uses and housing types, and the blending in with surrounding neighborhoods clearly demonstrate new urbanist signatures. Several of these projects are illustrated by graphics accompanying this article. The 14 other projects were designed by city staff and private architectural firms. Most of these projects feature street grids and an emphasis on defensible space — clearly an influence of the New Urbanism. Missing from many is the design flair, the great streets and public spaces in the new urbanist examples. These projects are in Albany, Lexington, Atlanta, Roanoke, Dallas, Milwaukee, Seattle, Chicago, Tulsa, New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Denver, and New Brunswick (New Jersey). Transforming public housing The goal of the Hope 6 program, conceived in 1992, is to turn 1940s, 1950s and 1960s public housing projects into neighborhoods. These projects, designed according to modernist architecture and planning principles prevalent at the time, featured barracks-style or high-rise units placed on superblocks, surrounded by ill-defined open space. They proved fertile ground for crime. Because the projects looked far different from surrounding neighborhoods, they bore the heavy stigma of public housing. Under Hope 6, the old public housing buildings are torn down and replaced with interconnected street patterns and buildings designed to blend in with surrounding neighborhoods. In some cases, buildings are renovated to look and function more like normal neighborhoods. While the goals of Hope 6 are in accord with the New Urbanism, in practice some projects have employed more new urbanist principles than others. This often has depended on the design firm employed. Some of the earliest Hope 6 projects, including Pleasant View Gardens in Baltimore, designed by Torti Gallas and Partners/CHK, and Diggs Town, designed by Urban Design Associates, are clearly new urbanist. In August, 1996, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) hosted a design seminar for HUD officials on principles for building walkable neighborhoods. The results of that education initiative are evident in the current round of Hope 6 projects. CNU participated in a second training conference with HUD on January 14 and 15, 1999, in Baltimore, Maryland. New Urban News will report on this conference in the March/April 1999 issue. u