Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach, An ITE Recommended Practice - Free PDF
This report has been developed in response to widespread interest for improving both mobility choices and community character through a commitment to creating and enhancing walkable communities. Many agencies will work towards these goals using the concepts and principles in this report to ensure the users, community and other key factors are considered in the planning and design processes used to develop walkable urban thoroughfares.
The Smart Code
The Smart Code is a general template for form based codes The Smart Code is courtesy of Smart Code Central and The Center for Applied Transect Technologies.
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Malls into Mainstreets
An in-depth guide to transforming dead malls into communities.
Date: 2005 Author: Congress for the New Urbanism
http://docplayer.net/124756-Malls-into-mainstreets.html
Tactical Urbanism
Click here to download
Improving the livability of our towns and cities commonly starts at the street, block, or building scale. While larger scale efforts do have their place, incremental, small-scale improvement efforts are increasingly seen as a way to stage more substantial investments. This approach allows a host of local actors to test new concepts before making substantial political and financial commitments. Sometimes sanctioned, sometimes not, these actions are commonly referred to as “guerilla urbanism,” “pop-up urbanism,” “city repair,” or “D.I.Y. urbanism.”
The Model Street Design Manual
http://www.modelstreetdesignmanual.com/
The Model Street Design Manual was created during a 2-day writing charrette, which brought together national experts in living streets concepts. This effort was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services through the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. This manual focuses on all users and all modes, seeking to achieve balanced street design that accommodates cars while ensuring that pedestrians, cyclists and transit users can travel safely and comfortably. This manual also incorporates features to make streets lively, beautiful, economically vibrant as well as environmentally sustainable.
CNU New York Provides Links to Resources to Support Your Project: Smart Growth, Livability & New Urbanist Sites
Congress for the New Urbanism Provides national leadership, resources, and national precedents. Their annual conference convenes planners, architects, developers and activists from across the nation and around the world to advance best practices in planning and development.
Center for Livable Communities The Local Government Commission assists local governments in establishing and nurturing the key elements of livable communities, a healthier human and natural environment, a more sustainable economy, an actively engaged populace, and an equitable society.
The Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy.
National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, University of Maryland A non-partisan center for research and leadership training on Smart Growth and related land use issues nationally and internationally.”
National Charrette Institute We teach professionals and community leaders the NCI Charrette System, a design-based, accelerated, collaborative project management system that harnesses the talents and energies of all interested parties to create and support a feasible plan.
National Main Street Center A project of the National Trust for Historic Preservation focused on the revitalization of commercial centers.
New Urbanism: Creating Livable Sustainable Communities "Giving more people more choices about where and how they want to live."
The Prince's Foundation For the Built Environment If we can understand and apply time-tested principles, building once more in a sustainable way, we will reap improvements in public health, in livelier and safer streets and in a more affordable lifestyle for families and individuals. We also believe that neighborhoods exhibiting these sustainable characteristics will accrue higher value over time.
Regional Plan Association: is America's oldest and most distinguished independent urban research and advocacy group. Now in its 86th year, RPA prepares long range plans and policies to guide the growth and development of the New York- New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region. RPA also provides leadership on national infrastructure, sustainability, and competitiveness concerns. RPA enjoys broad support from the region's and nation's business, philanthropic, civic, and planning communities.
The Seaside Institute Using Seaside, Florida as a living example, the Seaside Institute studies the benefits of New Urbanist communities and how to improve upon that model.
The Sierra Club & Sprawl Advances Smart Growth education and policy through their informative "Challange to the Sprawl Campaign".
Smart Growth America A coalition of nearly 100 advocacy organizations supporting community-based Smart Growth planning.
Smart Growth Online An extraordinary resource for anyone looking to advance higher quality land use and development.
Sprawl-busters "Sprawl-Busters Consultants help local community coalitions on-site to design and implement successful campaigns against megastores and other undesirable large-scale developments.”
Sustainable Communities Network Considers Sprawl and Smart Growth as they pertain to the broader notion of sustainability.
Urban Land Institute "Facilitates the open exchange of ideas, information and experience among local, national and international industry leaders and policy makers dedicated to creating better places.”
Vision Long Island VISION joins with others to promote more liveable, economically sustainable, and environmentally responsible growth on Long Island through Smart Growth. Smart Growth focuses on infill, re-development, and open space preservation. It supports mixed-use, mixed-income communities that are convenient, attractive, pedestrian-friendly, and that make affordable housing and public transportation desirable and realistic. A key objective is to strengthen communities from the start by actively involving local stakeholders in planning.
Webzines, Newsletters
New Urban News Geared toward design professionals and others interested in "human-scale communities.”
Katarxis Produced in Portugal, this webzine offers an international perspective on traditional architecture, urbanism, and New Urbanism.
Places Founded 26 years ago by architecture faculty at MIT and Berkeley, Places is an interdisciplinary journal of contemporary architecture, landscape, and urbanism, with particular emphasis on the public realm as physical place and social ideal.
Planetizen Urban planning news, editorials, classifieds and events.
Terrain Magazine A bi-annual journal seeking the "interface—the integration—among the built and natural environments, that might be called the soul of place.”
The Town Paper Community based planning, new urbanism and traditional neighborhood design.
Issue-Specific Organizations and Websites
Affordable Housing
HUD's Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse Information on laws, regulations, and policies affecting the development, maintenance, improvement, availability, and cost of affordable housing.
Brownfields
The Brownfields Center Provides information geared toward helping citizens take an active and effective role in the clean-up and redevelopment of brownfields in their community.
Building
National Town Builders Association Serves builders and developers working to build traditional neighborhoods and town centers.
Civic Action
United States Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties A forum where Cities and counties work together to develop long-term policies and programs
Local Government Commission (LGC) A great resource for elected officials and community leaders working to create healthy, walkable, and resource-efficient communities.
National Civic League and the Alliance for National Renewal "The nation's oldest and most prestigious community recognition program”
National Neighborhood Coalition "A convener of people and organizations concerned about neighborhoods, a conduit of information about programs and policies, and an advocate for neighborhoods and community and neighborhood-based organizations.”
Reclaiming the Streets Helping communities tame traffic.
Environment
National Resources Defense Council Facts, images, legislation, how-to's and how-comes of Smart Growth from an environmental perspective.
NYS Audubon Society The Audubon Society hosts a variety of conferences advancing Smart Growth and leads the New York State Smart Growth Working Group.
Growth Management Institute Promotes strategies and practices to achieve sustainable urban development and redevelopment in harmony with conservation of environmental qualities and features.
Sierra Club Advances Smart Growth education and policy through their informative "Challange to the Sprawl Campaign"
US Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation. USGBC produces the LEED Rating Systems.
National Main Street Center A project of the National Trust for Historic Preservation focused on the revitalization of commercial centers.
Townscape Institute "A non-profit, public interest planning organization concerned with place making and place meaning through conservation and visual enhancement of the built environments."
Planning
American Planning Association "Growing Smart Publications"
Planetizen Urban planning news, editorials, classifieds and events.
Planners Web City & Regional Planning Resources.
Public Health
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Learn more about the connection between sprawl and public health. Includes a checklist you can use to evaluate the walkability of your area.
Public Space
Projects for Public Spaces Helping create and sustain the centerpieces of our communities.
Walkability & Transportation
Center for Transit-Oriented Development
Reconnecting America Working to join transportation networks to communities
Surface Transportation Policy Project Advancing safer communities and smarter transportation choices.
The Street Plans Collaborative The Street Plans Collaborative is an urban planning, design, and advocacy firm. We thrive on working with our clients, partners, and other likeminded organizations to improve the quality and function of the built environment. We seek to create successful public spaces and increase the effectiveness of multi-modal transportation as a means to creating more competitive and sustainable 21st century towns and cities.
Transportation for America The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program serves as T4 America’s proposal for the policies and financing structures necessary to achieve real transformational change in America’s transportation system.
Tri-State Transportation Campaign "An alliance of public interest, transit advocacy, planning and environmental organizations working to reverse deepening automobile dependence and sprawl development in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut metropolitan region."
Walkinginfo.org Pedestrian and bicycle information center
Portals and other Places for More Information
Cyburbia "The Internet's oldest portal site for urban planners and others interested in cities and the built environment" Includes an image hosting gallery, mailing list and newsgroup information, and a very active message board.
Resource for Urban Design Information “an independent unbiased resource which commissions, researches and creates materials, and also re-publishes significant documents contributed by professional and government bodies, practitioners, academics and community organisations.”
Smart Growth Network's Smart Growth Resource Library
Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse An extensive resource for books, websites, organizations and reports covering a broad variety of topics.
Together Foundation's Best Practices Database Solutions database for common social, economic and environmental problems of an urbanizing and globalizing world.