Affiliate Organizations

Form-Based Codes Institute

The Form-Based Codes Institute (FBCI) is a non-profit professional organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and use of form-based codes. FBCI pursues this objective through three main areas of action.

• We develop standards for form-based codes.
• We provide education.
• We create a forum for discussion and advancement of form-based codes.

National Charrette Institute

The National Charrette Institute (NCI) is a nonprofit educational institution. We help people build community capacity for collaboration to create healthy community plans. We teach professionals and community leaders the art and science of the NCI Charrette System™, a holistic, collaborative planning process that harnesses the talents and energies of all interested parties to create and support a feasible plan. And we advance the fields of community planning and public involvement through research and publications.

National Town Builders Association

As a peer-to-peer organization, The NTBA provides an unequaled opportunity to share information and insight with the nation’s premier Town Builders. This give and take among equals in a collegial setting has proven to be the most efficient way to problem-solve, improve quality and energize the vision necessary to execute the very best of town building principles.

The NTBA is Town Builders learning from one another and committed to the following mission:

• We are town builders committed to the successful development of smart growth neighborhoods that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
• We believe that it is important to support each other and future colleagues in creating communities of excellence that will serve as local and regional models of responsible development.
• We wish to enhance the skills and meet the business needs of our members through peer networking and collaborative education.
• We believe that in the development and redevelopment of America’s neighborhoods it is not only possible, but highly desirable, to do well by doing good. The pursuit of this goal requires continuous professional collaboration and leadership.

Center for Applied Transect Studies

The Center for Applied Transect Studies (CATS) promotes understanding of the built environment as part of the natural environment, through the planning methodology of the rural-to-urban transect. CATS supports interdisciplinary research, publication, tools, and training for the design, coding, building, and documentation of resilient transect-based communities.

CATS is committed to transect-based environmental and land development principles that encourage the following outcomes:

• Walkable, transit-connected communities
• Comprehensive zoning reform
• Context-based thoroughfare design and engineering
• Affordable housing and income diversity
• Regional, local, and individual food production
• Passive climatic response in building and urban design
• Reduction of environmental impacts and costs of infrastructure
• Development and use of renewable energy technologies
• Repair of unsustainable sprawl patterns

Seaside Institute

The Seaside Institute is dedicated to the following purposes:

• Documenting the founding and development of the community of Seaside, which is widely considered the birthplace of land use planning philosophy known as the New Urbanism,
• Educating public officials, students, professionals and the general public about the benefits and techniques of New Urbanism, including the study of historical precedents, and
• Fostering education, cultural activities and the arts within Seaside and the surrounding area.
• The Seaside Institute brings together the best thinkers and practitioners in the field of New Urbanism to discuss and debate at the highest level. Like-minded organizations are linked together so that they can learn from one another. The necessary tools to improve the way communities are formed and developed are then shared with the Institute’s partners through collaboration.

Urban Guild

The New Urban Guild is dedicated to promoting the creation of better places through traditional patterns and languages of architecture and urbanism. We view the pervasiveness of disposable buildings, placeless buildings, forgettable buildings and unlovable buildings as the natural end-product of any theory of architecture that is not based primarily on human beings.

CNU Chapters

CNU Chapters provide a local framework to collaborate on building more great places for everyone. Chapters are a leading voice to promote and define urban design in communities and across regions. They gather local leaders, like-minded organizations, and practitioners looking for peer networking, professional development, and strategies and tools of what works in their communities.