2. imperatives :
climate instability
mitigating suburbanites‟ high carbon footprints and adapting to severe weather
rising energy costs
living compactly reduces energy use in buildings and for transportation
poverty and social segregation
since 2005 more Americans in poverty live in suburbs than cities
public health
suburban living raises risk of obesity, suicide, and death by automobile crashes
Affordability
the savings of “drive „til you qualify” are wiped out by rising transportation costs

3. market driver headlines :
demographic shifts
suburbia simply isn‟t “family-focused” anymore. 2/3 of suburban hh‟s don‟t have
kids, 85% of new hh‟s won‟t through 2025 . Millenials are looking for nightlife and
value wifi and connectedness more than cars.
the new centers
as metros have expanded, first ring suburbs and commercial corridors now have
central locations, often meriting densification and urbanization of their
“underperforming asphalt”.

4. relocalization of people, place,
landscape, and activity
tactical urbanism,
crowdsourceing, and
collaborative consumption
cheap space for community-
serving uses
“third places”
placemaking through :
Re-inhabitation

5. Congress for the New
Urbanism: Next Gen
short-term projects for
long-term gains
pavement to plaza depave
parklet yarnbombing
Walk posters

6. From strip to job and
town center
Willingboro Town Center
Willingboro, NJ
Croxton Collaborative
Architects
1960
1. Boscov’s Furniture
2. Sears
3. Woolworths
4. Power plant
2009
1. Mail-service pharmacy
2. Office building
3. Public library w/ retail
4. Community College
5. Town Commons
6. Townhouses
7. Planted swales
Courtesty Croxton Collaborative Architects
MTC Aerial Photography

7. -
100 Oaks Mall & Medical Center, Nashville TN:
Medical center on 2nd floor of once-dying mall
Wellspring Medical & Wellness Center, Woodburn,
OR in former K-Mart
Collinwood Recreation Center, Collinwood OH:
from dead Big Lots store to public recreation center
with bioswales on former parking lot
RWJ Hamilton Ctr for Health &
Wellnesss, Hamilton, NJ: Former Ames Dept Store

8. Updating the “L” strip mall as a “third place” with portals to the neighborhood
Lake Grove Shopping Center, Lake Oswego, OR: Eric Shoemaker Beam Development
From “back” to a new front to the neighborhood

9. urbanize – organize buildings to
create connected outdoor rooms
and walkable street networks
densify and diversify: reward the
pedestrian eye
green the infrastructure
placemaking through:
Redevelopment

10. Suburban Form Urban Form
-buildings as discrete, stand-alone objects -buildings align and front onto the street
-open space lacks form, is dominated by cars -open space is shaped by the buildings; outdoor room
-blocks and streets are large, unconducive to walking -blocks and streets are smaller, more walkable,safer
-single uses, separated infrastructure systems -mixed uses, more integrated infrastructure systems
From dead mall to green downtown
Belmar, Lakewood, CO: Continuum Partners; Elkus Manfredi Architects, Civitas Inc.

11. transit triggers infill of an office park
University Town Center, Hyattsville, MD
Prince George’s Metro Center, Inc.; Parker Rodriguez, RTKL Associates, WDG Architecture
1980 2009

12. From a park-n-ride + mall to a high-design civic centre geothermal TOD Surrey
Surrey Central City, Surrey, BC; Simon Frasier University, Bing Thom Architects, Inc
source: Dunham-Jones, Williamson, 2009
Library Classrooms above shopping mall
Phase 1: college classrooms built above mall, + new high rise

13. Recapturing traffic islands for redevelopment while making walkable intersections
Fort Totten MetroRail stop, Washington DC Planning Department, WAMATA
Source: Washington DC Planning Dept website

14. Intersection retrofit and public placemaking as catalyst
Normal Illinois Roundabout, Normal Illinois: Doug Farr Associates, Hoerr Schauer Landscape

15. Photoz; G. Komar
From 5-lane arterial to 2-lane Main Street with multi-use parking Ramblas
Lancaster, CA: Moule & Polyzoides

16. retrofitting land use, transportation and energy on a commercial corridor
Cambie Corridor, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver City Planning Department

17. reconstruct local ecology, daylight
culverted streams, and clean run-
off
add parks to increase adjacent
property values
food and energy production
carbon sequestration
placemaking through:
Regreening

19. from mall parking lot to TOD with water treatment bioswale as park amenity
Northgate Urban Center, North Seattle, WA: LEED-ND pilot program
Thornton Place, Mithun Architects for Stellar Holdings & Lorig Associates
•Added 530 units of housing at net 96 units/acre (another 1800 coming?)
•Increased open space within the Northgate Urban Center by 50%
•Provided pedestrian links that shortened walking distances by 50% from several adjacent neighborhoods
Source: Dunham-Jones, Williamson 2011
2000
condos to
replace
200 apts?

20. Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel: City of Seattle, SvR Design
•Reduced impervious surface by 78%
•Designed to remove an estimated 40-80% of suspended solids from 91% of the avg annual stormwater runoff
from the 680-acre drainage basin
•Created new habitat: native birds were observed within one month and native volunteer plants have gotten
established with the 85% native species that were planted. Source: Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defence Council
•Adds an estimated 30% increase in adjacent property values

21. From urban mall to park ringed with urban housing
Columbus City Center Park, Columbus OH

22. Target retrofitting more strategically
at the metro scale
Support new tools: Form-Based
Codes, Transfer of Development
Rights, Health Impact Assessments,
Retrofittability Analyses, Greyfield
Audits, etc.
Replace “drive „til you qualify” with
compact housing with affordable
transit by retrofitting commercial
strip corridors into transit-served
boulevards
Come to CNU 21 in Salt Lake City
May 29-June 1
strategy:
Next Steps

23. From edge city sprawl to developer-driven 430-acre TOD
White Flint, MD; White Flint Partnership, Washington Metropolitan Planning Council
1. Permits development of a new
downtown over next 20 years
2. Dedicated-lane BRT circulators outward
from Metro Station
3. 10,000 residential units, 2600 of them
“affordable”
4. Commercial space up from 14mil s.f to
20mil
5. Limited parking
6. High-rises up to 30-stories
7. Generate $6-7bil in revenue for the
county

24. From edge city sprawl to developer-driven 430-acre TOD
White Flint, MD- North Bethesda Market East & Market II; JBG Companies

25. Connecting the Dots: Retrofitting the airport, mall, chemical plant and corridor
Airport Boulevard, Austin TX: City of Austin, Gateway Planning Group

26. • Healthy Communities
• Aging in Place: Rethinking
Retirement
• Resilience planning and adaptation
to local climate change, local food
• Local/district energy, net zero
energy, low carbon communities
• Collaborative Economies: bike-
sharing, scooter-sharing
• Using social media to enhance
community building
strategy:
Emerging Trends

27. Partnering to
Remove Obstacles
to Urbanism by
Reforming
Standards and
Practices
Past Initiatives:
HOPE VI Mixed-
Income Communities
LEED-ND
CNU/ITE Manual on
Walkable Urban
Thoroughfares
Emerging Initiatives: Tactical
Urbanism, Urban Agricutlure, Code
Reform, New Urbanism in China