New Urbanism is America’s latest export to the world’s most populous country

In late August, CNU hosted a delegation of Chinese housing officials in San Francisco as they recruited American talent for a new enterprise: developing pedestrian-scale, mixed-use, traditional neighborhoods in the booming cities of Beijing and Shanghai. “Today, most urban Chinese have housing,” says Shelley Poticha, executive director of CNU. “Now, the government there wants to reduce crowding and improve livability. They recognize that the United States is the leader in combining traditional urbanism with modern lifestyles. So they have partnered with private developers who will build two model neighborhoods, which may then be imitated throughout their country.” With about 10 percent of its members living in 15 countries outside the US, CNU is occasionally engaged in international initiatives. The collaboration with China, however, is CNU's most ambitious mission outside of North America. The Chinese delegation reviewed the work of six noted American urban architecture and planning firms: Design Collective and Cho Bin Holbeck, both of Baltimore, Maryland; Frank Williams Associates, of New York City; Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists of Pasadena, California; Solomon ETC of San Francisco, California; and Sorg Associates of Washington, D.C. The next step will be to select a design team for each of the development sites in Beijing and Shanghai. The American companies will design one complete building and a neighborhood plan for each city. Creating goodwill and export opportunities CNU’s ties to the Chinese development authorities have come about with the help the US government. CNU has a seat on the select US-China Residential Building Council, launched by President Clinton in 1998. Poticha recently went to China on an information-sharing mission between the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Chinese Ministry of Construction. HUD's international division hopes that sharing the best of American development practice with China will enhance relations between the two countries and improve US exports. The US-China Residential Building Council is largely an effort to boost American exports to China, so the buildings designed for these projects will be constructed of donated American materials. The Council's goal is to help develop a pair of model buildings in model neighborhoods, showing the Chinese officials an alternative to conventional suburban sprawl. Urban patterns changing in china Poticha says that livable neighborhoods are a new direction for Chinese cities, which have grown rapidly for the past 50 years. “The new development has shown little regard for maintaining traditional neighborhood patterns,” she says. Now that private auto ownership is on the rise in China, traffic congestion and the other problems of urban sprawl are also growing in importance. Traditional Chinese cities have excellent pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. They are generally built using superblocks, or “hutongs,” full of residences and crisscrossed with pedestrian streets. The outer walls, lined with shops, face major streets. Chinese city dwellers are accustomed to much higher densities than Americans. The most common building type in today's China is the seven-story single-loaded walkup. In downtown Shanghai, skyscrapers of more than 50 stories are the rule, rather than the exception. All the same, suburban sprawl is an increasing problem. For the past decade, wealthy Chinese have been able to move into 2,000 square-foot, American-style suburban homes with lawns. Near Hong Kong and Shanghai, golf course communities are being developed. China can scarcely afford to suburbanize to the extent that the United States has. With only 10 percent of its land suitable for agriculture, and a population four times greater than America's on the same land area, Chinese farmland preservation is a pressing issue.