Eighteen projects honored by 2002 Charter Awards

Infill projects dominate as three design firms take home multiple awards. Winners of the second annual Charter Awards were selected by a distinguished jury over the weekend of March 16. After spending days perusing more than 200 submissions from 170 firms, the jurors, led by CNU board member Jonathan Barnett, settled on 18 projects to represent best practices in New Urbanism. The winners are representative of all scales of development and planning, from individual blocks and buildings to regional plans. This year’s winners were drawn more from neighborhood and regional-scale planning than last year’s, with only four of the winning projects being individual blocks or buildings. The only winner from outside the US was a plan for high-density redevelopment in Beirut, Lebanon. The majority of projects are located in coastal states, with the exception of plans from Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, and Addison, Texas, and most are found in older cities and suburbs. Other than regional plans, all winners were infill projects. Another major surprise is that three firms managed to win two awards apiece in the blind judging. A publication with extensive images of each project and a description of their programs will be available in time for CNU X in Miami Beach. Advance orders are available now from CNU, at store.yahoo.com/cnuinfo, for $14.95 plus shipping. u