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Charter of the New Urbanism

Various contributors, including Peter Calthorpe

Cities face major changes to survive the challenges of the new millennium.  Decades of sprawl have increased traffic, destroyed natural areas and farmland, and created urban areas where the automobile reigns and neighbors live in isolation.  Adults spend hours commuting to work, kids can’t play outside for fear of crime and traffic, smog increases, and everyone feels for claustrophobic even while metropolitan regions become more spread out.  

In 1993, The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was formed to foster a vision for restoring balance to cities and suburbs.  The CNU approach is based upon the best traditions of urbanism, updated for modern needs.  Charter of the New Urbanism amplifies this movement’s revolutionary approach to the ways regions are designed, built, and managed.  Charter reveals CNU’s strategies and techniques to shape development constructively.  

With essays and case studies by a world-class roster of designers, developers, elected officieals, and academics, this groundbreaking book explains how to revive cities, overhaul suburbs, break the gridlock on our streets, improve public safety, and preserve open lands.  Charter looks at communities at three separate but interlocking levels:

  • The Region: Metropolis, City, and Town: Why Regions prosper when they curtail sprawl, redevelop vacant parcels in cities, share taxes, provide housing for all, and plan for transit.
  • Neighborhood, District, and Corridor – How pedestrian-friendly communities can accommodate the car and business needs while creating healthy places to live and work.
  • Block, Street, and Building – How well-designed buildings and streets build community, reduce crime, increase pedestrian safety and convenience, and promote strong sense of place.

Complete with plans, examples, and techniques, Charter offers practical advice written by those at the forefront of this movement.  Whether you’re a designer, developer, planner, elected official, or citizen activist, this is the one source you’ll need to make urban change a reality.