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Figure 2.14
First Ward Place, Charlotte, NC,
1997–2001. Under the auspices of the US govern-
ments HOPE VI program, and following New Urbanist
design principles, several cities have transformed
blighted urban areas into attractive mixed-income
neighborhoods like this Charlotte example.
Figure 2.15
Lindberg Center, Atlanta, Cooper Carry
architects, 1998–2003. The Bell South
telecommunications company has consolidated its
regional offices as the centerpiece of this large
mixed-use development built on top of and around
a MARTA train station in Atlanta, Georgia.
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demolition or careless stewardship. For each of these
quandaries, private or public organizations are trying
to reverse the downward trend, sometimes with
impressive local success. In America, several cities can
now point to major downtown improvements during
the 1990s, with thousands of new city center dwellers
bringing with them renewed retail development to
supplement the traditional concentrations of office
space. The intransigent problem of building afford-
able housing and integrating it into the community is
at least being tackled with some serious intent (see
Figure 2.14).
New transportation infrastructures, usually light
rail or streetcars, are beginning to spur a series of
urban redevelopments in more central locations that
provide a partial antidote to continued peripheral
expansion (see Figure 2.15). Some new developments
on greenfield sites are taking a more compact, envi-
ronmentally friendly form with an urbanized core
and walkable neighborhoods (see Plate 5). Other
subdivision designs around the edges of cities empha-
sise the conservation of existing landscapes as an
environmental resource and a generator of economic
value (see Figure 2.16). All these types of develop-
ment have their place in the lexicon of Smart
Growth, and formed the foundations of New
Urbanist theory and practice some years before Smart
Growth became the rallying cry it is today in
America. Accordingly, in the next chapter we turn
our attention specifically to the principles of New
Urbanism, the evolution of the movement, and its
intersection with Smart Growth.
DESIGN FIRST: DESIGN-BASED PLANNING FOR COMMUNITIES