Urban Design and Preservation Division

As we move toward more transit oriented development and work to retrofit our existing suburbs, we search for opportunities to use existing infrastructure and land area efficiently. As we evaluate these opportunities, it is important to fully understand the residential developments in these suburban areas of the post-WWII era -- both lower density modest single-family house tracts and garden apartment complexes with acres of green space. 

This session shows how to calculate the increase in value of private land due to public actions and develop a reasonable figure for developer contributions. This knowledge is particularly helpful to those working in urban design and preservation where much of what is achieved is through negotiating developer contributions. This session was first presented at the APA National Conference in Chicago in 2013.

The North American urban landscape is dominated by the products of late 20th century suburbanization, leaving the built environment littered with dead malls, failing strip centers, foreclosed houses, vacant big boxes, and acre upon acre of asphalt parking lots. What to do? June Williamson will discuss promising planning and design strategies and tactics, illustrated with competition-winning proposals from her book Designing Suburban Futures as well as case studies from her previous book Retrofitting Suburbia, co-authored with Ellen Dunham-Jones.

The Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. In this Webinar, Jeff Speck outlines the compelling economic, health, and environmental mandates behind creating more walkable communities. He then discusses his General Theory of Walkability, which describes the measures that communities can undertake to create larger walking and biking populations by providing the "useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting walk."