Women to lead Seaside New Urbanism Conference

The Seaside Institute’s conference December 2 through 5, Building and Rebuilding Traditional Neighborhoods, promises to take participants on a step-by-step journey through the development and redevelopment process and will offer case studies of Prairie Crossing near Chicago, Fairview Village in Oregon, and the Hope VI project Pleasant View Gardens in Baltimore. The seminar also includes sessions on public policy, principles of design, finance and implementation, retail, legal issues, and the challenges facing the New Urbanism in the areas of diversity and gentrification. The faculty is all women, a first for the New Urbanism and deliberate on the part of the Seaside Institute, says executive director Phillis Bleiweis. Women offer “a distinct point of view,” she says. “Women have a perspective about how they live, where they live, how they develop a property. Women make the decisions about domestic real estate purchases most of the time. We also felt that there are probably some women involved in developing TNDs who will find it perhaps a more open environment to come and learn from. The women we have selected are top notch in their fields.”