New Urbanism and Communities of Color (CM | 2.0)

New Urbanism has gained considerable acceptance in the last 20 years, it remains controversial in a number of circles. Many critics believe that, while the New Urbanism contains many attractive ideas, it has not been able to effectively deal with a wide range of issues associated with inner-city communities and metropolitan growth that simply did not exist in the early twentieth century when it’s planning and design predecessors were being implemented. This workshop will address these concerns as well as carefully look into the principles of New Urbanism and its application in urban settings while taking a retrospective approach to developing a clearer understanding of urban settlement patterns in communities of color, identifying typologies of traditional neighborhood design, and explore place-determinants to help further develop a knowledge-base of meaningful precedents. This in turn, can be applied to the development of future self-sustaining and livable communities.

The intent of this workshop will be to convey a thoughtful and selective awareness of New Urbanism principles and traditions with the effort to assist the contemporary community planner in deriving relevant strategies for the desired New Urbanism as it should more effectively respond to the social, economic and physical needs of inner-city communities.