2. • American and Canadian writer and activist Jane Jacobs
transformed the field of urban planning with her writing about
American cities and her grass-roots organizing.
• She led resistance to the wholesale replacement of urban
communities with high rise buildings and the loss of community to
expressways.
• Along with Lewis Mumford, she is considered a founder of
the New Urbanist movement.
• She linked up with the New School in New York, and after three
years, published the book for which she is most renowned, The
Death and Life of Great American Cities.
• The impact of Jane Jacobs's observation, activism, and writing has
led to a 'planning blueprint' for generations of architects,
planners, politicians and activists to practice.
• Jacobs saw cities as integrated systems that had their own logic
and dynamism which would change over time according to how
they were used.
• With an eye for detail, she wrote eloquently about sidewalks,
parks, retail design and self-organization.
JANE JACOBS (1916-2006)
3. • Jacobs helped derail the car-centered approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto,
invigorating neighborhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads.
• Jacobs saw cities as living ecosystems.
• She took a systemic look at all the elements of a city, looking at them not just individually, but as parts
of an interconnected system.
• She supported bottom-up community planning, relying on the wisdom of those who lived in the
neighborhoods to know what would best suit the location.
• She preferred mixed-use neighborhoods to separate residential and commercial functions and fought
conventional wisdom against high-density building, believing that well-planned high density did not
necessarily mean overcrowding.
• She also believed in preserving or transforming old buildings where possible, rather than tearing them
down and replacing them.
4. NEW URBANISM:
• New Urbanism is an urban planning and design movement that began in the United States in the early 1980s.
• Its goals are to reduce dependence on the car, and to create livable and walkable, neighborhoods with a densely packed array
of housing, jobs, and commercial sites.
• New Urbanism also promotes a return to the traditional town planning seen in places such as downtown Charleston, South
Carolina and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.
• These locations are ideal for New Urbanists because in each one there is an easily walkable "Main Street," a downtown park,
shopping districts and a gridded street system.
History of New Urbanism
• In the beginning of the 19th century, development of American cities often took a compact, mixed-use form, reminiscent
of that found in places like old town Alexandria, Virginia.
• With the development of the streetcar and affordable rapid transit, however, cities began to spread out and create
streetcar suburbs.
• The later invention of the automobile further increased this decentralization from the central city which later led to
separated land uses and urban sprawl.
• New Urbanism is a reaction to the spreading out of cities.
• The ideas then began to spread in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as urban planners and architects started to come up
with plans to model cities in the U.S. after those in Europe.
• In 1991, New Urbanism developed more strongly when the Local Government Commission, a nonprofit group in
Sacramento, California, invited several architects, including Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett, Andres Duany and
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk among others, to Yosemite National Park to develop a set of principles for land use planning that
focused on the community and its livability.
5. • The principles, named after Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel where the conference was held, are called the Ahwahnee
Principles.
• Within these, there are 15 community principles, four regional principles and four principles of implementation.
• Each one, however, deals with both past and present ideas to make cities as clean, walkable and livable as possible.
• Shortly thereafter, some of the architects involved in creating the Ahwahnee Principles formed the Congress for the
New Urbanism (CNU) in 1993.
• CNU New York is the Jane Jacobs chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, promoting the creation and
preservation of walkable, sustainable and beautiful neighborhoods, towns and cities.
• Today, CNU is the leading promoter of New Urbanist ideas and has grown to over 3,000 members.
• It also holds conferences yearly in cities across the U.S. to further promote New Urbanism design principles.
AHWAHNEE PRINCIPLES AND CNU( congress for the new urbanism):
6. Core New Urbanist Ideas
• Within the concept of New Urbanism today, there are four key ideas. The first of these is to ensure that a city is
walkable.
• This means that no resident should need a car to get anywhere in the community and they should be no more
than a five-minute walk from any basic good or service.
• To achieve this, communities should invest in sidewalks and narrow streets.
• In addition to actively promoting walking, cities should also de-emphasize the car by placing garages behind
homes or in alleys.
• There should also only be on-street parking, instead of large parking lots.
• Another core idea of New Urbanism is that buildings should be mixed both in their style, size, price, and
function.
• For example, a small townhouse can be placed next to a larger, single family home.
• Mixed-use buildings such as those containing commercial spaces with apartments over them are also ideal in
this setting.
• Finally, a New Urbanist city should have a strong emphasis on the community.
• This means maintaining connections between people with high density, parks, open spaces and community
gathering centers like a plaza or neighborhood square.
7. CNU asserts the following principles to guide public policy, development practice, urban planning, and design:
The region: Metropolis, city, and town
1. Metropolitan regions are finite places with geographic boundaries derived from topography, watersheds, coastlines,
farmlands, regional parks, and river basins. The metropolis is made of multiple centers that are cities, towns, and villages, each
with its own identifiable center and edges.
2. The metropolis has a necessary and fragile relationship to its agrarian hinterland and natural landscapes. Farmland and
nature are as important to the metropolis as the garden is to the house.
3. Where appropriate, new development contiguous to urban boundaries should be organized as neighborhoods and districts,
and be integrated with the existing urban pattern. Noncontiguous development should be organized as towns and villages with
their own urban edges, and planned for a jobs/housing balance
4. The development and redevelopment of towns and cities should respect historical patterns, precedents, and boundaries.
5. Cities and towns should bring into proximity a broad spectrum of public and private uses to support a regional economy that
benefits people of all incomes. Affordable housing should be distributed throughout the region to match job opportunities and to
avoid concentrations of poverty.
6. The physical organization of the region should be supported by a framework of transportation alternatives. Transit,
pedestrian, and bicycle systems should maximize access and mobility throughout the region while reducing dependence upon
the automobile.
8. The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor
1. The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor are the essential elements of development and redevelopment in
the metropolis.
2. Neighborhoods should be compact, pedestrian-friendly, and mixed-use. Corridors are regional connectors of
neighborhoods and districts; they range from boulevards and rail lines to rivers and parkways.
3. Many activities of daily living should occur within walking distance, allowing independence to those who do not
drive, especially the elderly and the young. Interconnected networks of streets should be designed to encourage
walking, reduce the number and length of automobile trips, and conserve energy.
4. Within neighborhoods, a broad range of housing types and price levels can bring people of diverse ages, races, and
incomes into daily interaction, strengthening the personal and civic bonds essential to an authentic community.
5. Appropriate building densities and land uses should be within walking distance of transit stops, permitting public
transit to become a viable alternative to the automobile.
6.A range of parks, from tot-lots and village greens to ballfields and community gardens, should be distributed within
neighborhoods. Conservation areas and open lands should be used to define and connect different neighborhoods
and districts.
9. The block, the street, and the building
1. A primary task of all urban architecture and landscape
design is the physical definition of streets and public spaces as
places of shared use.
2.The revitalization of urban places depends on safety and
security. The design of streets and buildings should reinforce
safe environments, but not at the expense of accessibility and
openness.
3.In the contemporary metropolis, development must
adequately accommodate automobiles. It should do so in ways
that respect the pedestrian and the form of public space.
4. Streets and squares should be safe, comfortable, and
interesting to the pedestrian. Properly configured, they
encourage walking and enable neighbors to know each other
and protect their communities.
5.Architecture and landscape design should grow from local
climate, topography, history, and building practice.
6. All buildings should provide their inhabitants with a clear
sense of location, weather and time. Natural methods of
heating and cooling can be more resource-efficient than
mechanical systems.
10. Examples of New Urbanist Cities
• Although New Urbanist design strategies have been tried in various places across the U.S., the first fully developed New
Urbanist town was Seaside, Florida, designed by architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Construction began
there in 1981 and almost immediately, it became famous for its architecture, public spaces, and quality of streets.
• The Stapleton neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, is another example of New Urbanism in the U.S.
• It is on the site of the former Stapleton International Airport and construction began in 2001.
• The neighborhood is zoned as residential, commercial and office and will be one of the largest in Denver. Like Seaside, it too
will de-emphasize the car but it will also have parks and open space.
BOSTON
BEFORE AFTER
11. • The First New Urbanist Town: Seaside, Florida
• The first city designed and developed based on New Urbanism
was Seaside located on the Florida Panhandle
• Now, Seaside is known as the symbol of New Urbanism and
famous for its architecture, public spaces and quality of streets.
Seaside is privately owned, so not governments but the urban
developers could write their own zoning codes.
• Seaside contains a town center with shopping places and
restaurants (SEASIDE n.d.). The town center is located within
walkable distance to residential areas and offices (SEASIDE, n.d.).
• Seaside’s commercial hub is located at the town center. In the
center area, there is a huge park and green area where people
can use as a public open space and have some public social
events.
• The streets are designed in a radiating street pattern with
pedestrian alleys and open spaces located throughout the town.
There is a mix of uses and residential types throughout the
community. Hence, Seaside reflects the two major characteristics
of New Urbanism: pedestrian-oriented sidewalks and mix of uses
and residential types.
12. • Stapleton was the primary airport for metropolitan Denver for
most of the 20th century.
• The street network is good at the neighborhood level, but
it doesn't connect very well to the larger city grid.
• That's good for pedestrians and cyclists, but also means cars
have to navigate a tricky maze of streets to leave or cross the
area.
• The two main streets in Stapleton, Martin Luther King and
Central Park boulevards, run right through the center of town.
• Ideally, major streets in New Urbanist developments would run
on the periphery, to reduce traffic conflicts with non-drivers.
• Central Park Boulevard carries 12,000 vehicles a day, but it's designed to hold 30,000 in anticipation of future growth. As a
result, the road has way more space than it needs right now, which encourages faster traffic.
• In accordance with Denver regulations, some major intersections (including those on Central Park Boulevard) have a curb
radius of 30 feet—a "vehicle-oriented" value that's generally considered by the standards of New Urbanism to be too
large for walkable areas, since it facilitates faster turns.
STAPLETON,DENVER
13. • Market Square Place ,Pittsburgh
represents the dramatic renewal of a city block as a
vibrant urban district that has catalyzed further
development in downtown Pittsburgh.
• The transformation exemplifies the alignment of
historic preservation and sustainability objectives to
generate economic and social activity.
• Designed by Strada and developed by Millcraft Industries, Market Square Place combines a series of seven historic
buildings into a single mixed-use complex.
• It houses 46 rental lofts, 25,000 square feet of street level retail, and a large commercial space filled by a new
YMCA.
• Sustainable strategies, including the extensive reuse of existing materials, governed the design and earned the
project LEED-Gold certification. Market Square Place is now the cornerstone of a thriving commercial district and
active public square.
14. • Criticisms of New Urbanism
• Despite the popularity of New Urbanism in the recent decades, there have been some criticisms of its design
practices and principles.
• The first of these is that the density of its cities leads to a lack of privacy for residents. Some critics claim that
people want detached homes with yards so they are further away from their neighbors.
• By having mixed density neighborhoods and possibly sharing driveways and garages, this privacy is lost.
• Critics also say that New Urbanist towns feel inauthentic and isolated because they do not represent the "norm"
of settlement patterns in the U.S. Many of these critics often point to Seaside as it was used to film portions of the
film The Truman Show and as a model of Disney's community, Celebration, Florida.
• Finally, critics of New Urbanism argue that instead of promoting diversity and community, New Urbanist
neighborhoods only attract affluent white residents as they often become very expensive places to live.
• Regardless of these criticisms though, New Urbanist ideas are becoming a popular form of planning communities
and with a growing emphasis on mixed-use buildings, high density settlements, and walkable cities, its principles
will continue into the future.
15. CONCLUSION
• New Urbanism practitioners embraced Jacobs's pro-city, anti-suburb sentiments with zeal and a determination to
eradicate the "scourge." At the end of a 30-year, intensive effort, what emerged at the city periphery—where most
of the growth occurs—were well-styled, orderly suburbs, joining an overabundance of conventional ones as the
metropolis expanded.
• A clear lesson emerges from the disparity between intentions and outcomes: the future has to be imagined not
remembered.
• SOURCES:
• https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/our-projects
• https://www.thoughtco.com/new-urbanism-urban-planning-design-movement-1435790
• https://www.newgeography.com/content/006328-new-urbanism-and-jane-jacobs-a-tangled-disconnect
• https://www.cnunewyork.org/blog/charter-.html
