Economic and racial segregation has strangled opportunities for millions of people. Disinvestment has devastated entire city neighborhoods and suburban villages, towns, and cities. Segregation results in a sprawling and expanded urban footprint, increasing the cost of servicing land and mobility and reducing the quality of life of people. How do we reduce segregation? It is not simple, and the answer may range from a regenesis of a compact and dense downtown to more transit-oriented developments, recycling buildings, mix-use, and diverse neighborhoods, and building people-centered spaces for all. The St Charles proposal is an attempt to leverage on what the Greeks and Romans knew of the relationship between people and the built environment and reverse the patterns we commonly associate with segregation and inequality. Expansion has worked for developers but has proven catastrophic for communities and society as a whole. As the population continues to migrate to intermediate and smaller cities we need need to measure the right mix of races, genres, ages, uses that makes communities thrive and prosper.

1. URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE: FUELING COMMUNITY ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Ideas/Knowledge Inspire Positive Change
Gabriel Nagy International Consultant – Housing, Finance and Development
Architect Msc. Planning and Urban Economics
Chicago 2018
12 EQUALIZING DESIGN PRINCIPLES TO REVERSE
SEGREGATION IN THE CHICAGO REGION

2. "No doubt we live in a better world compared to the poverty and the miseries of the 1840s. This was perhaps
the greatest story of transformation and resilience ever. All of it happened in a “society with no apparatus of
planning laws and regulatory bodies, no public building regulations, no zoning or land-use laws, no direct public
action to supply housing or urban services”, argues Matt Ridley in The evolution of Everything. “This
urbanization was orderly but unplanned. It was evolutionary.”
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3. "Demographics and consumption pattern are changing with millennials looking for transparency, experience
(over things), and flexibility. Smart City developers are planning and building tech-focused and sustainable
neighborhoods from the ground up. Innovative finance and public-private partnerships are fueling urban
transformation and delivering more efficient and effective services. But to keep pace with evolution
governments must rediscover their sense of purpose: delivering opportunities, promoting individual dignity and
encouraging self-reliance. They should devolve power (planning) and resources (taxes) to cities and
communities and curve down planning restrictions that favor self-interest and undermine development on the
most prosperous cities."
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4. Creating a Regenerative Project - Healing Communities
Regenerative and livable communities are the sum of interventions and factors that reverse the pattern of
segregation prevailing in current urban development practice.
The 12 equalizing design principles proposed in this presentation add up to a community's quality of life,
including a aesthetically inspiring build environment in balance with the natural environment, economic
prosperity [growth], social engagement and equity, educational opportunities and cultural, entertainment and
recreation possibilities for children, middle-age and adult population.
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5. Equitable, Compact, Integrated, Diverse, Connected and Thriving DT (1)
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6. Visible Vitality - Community Focus (2)
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● Make spaces for active people
● Include greenery and water
● Vary the buildings height to create a
varied skyline
Photos Emily Nagy

7. Expand the Focus of the Project (3)
Drawings: NAGY Associates. Template Fox-River-Corridor-Master-Plan-20151014-FINAL.
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● Consider St. Charles with the Fox
River at its heart
● Consider St. Charles Public Library,
Blue Goose Plaza, Lincoln Park,
Hazletine Park, Mount Saint Mary
Park, Moody Park other parklands
and public and private amenities
into a continuous riverside parkland
● Create an experience that
celebrates the river and connects
the subject project to all corridors
and areas within downtown St.
Charles

8. Order and Complexity - Live/Work Communities (4)
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Photos Emily Nagy

9. Main Street and 1st Street, not Highways (5)
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● Special attention to architecture and public
space design.
● Make pedestrian movement the number
one priority
● Make new mid block crossing breaking
down current scale
● Add signalled crossing at key intersections
and key points
● Extend pedestrian priority along Illinois
Steet, Ohio Street and 1st Street and
connect with the river and Blue Goose
Plaza
● Maximize habitable zones for pedestrians
and street activity along the circuit
Drawings: NAGY Associates. Template Fox-River-Corridor-Master-Plan-20151014-FINAL.

10. Celebrating the River - Integrated and Connected (6)
10Photos Emily Nagy

11. Parks and Squares Network - “Living Room” (7)
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● Create new public squares
and parks in public land
inside key blocks
● A Blue Goose Plaza
● New public spaces can be
framed by parking on edges
● Select car parking spaces are
used to locate outdoor tables,
trees, street crossing, and
small public spaces
Drawings: NAGY Associates. Template Fox-River-Corridor-Master-Plan-20151014-FINAL.

12. Orientation and Mystery - Energized and Active Spaces for All (8)
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Photos Emily Nagy

13. Unique and Diverse - Development Opportunities (9)
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● Allow new development inside blocks capitalizing on views and
amenity from new inner block plaza and parks
● Create a retail frame that connects Blue Goose Plaza with the
river
● Encourage opportunistic development with a diversity of uses and
scales around the plaza and other public spaces
● Develop City land strategically to unlock potential adjacent sites,
increase pedestrian and vehicular links
Drawings: NAGY Associates. Template Fox-River-Corridor-Master-Plan-20151014-FINAL.

14. Scale - Highly Walkable and Bike Friendly (10)
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Photos Emily Nagy

15. Public Realm a Pedestrian Network (11)
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● Improve the walkability of the town by
breaking down the scale of its large blocks
with mid-block crossings and through links
● Make a engaging walkable streetscape
with a legitimate structure
● Restaurant outdoor extension and small
public spaces are created along the length
of 1st and 2nd Streets, and provide
platforms for active life on the street -
places to eat, rest and socialize
Drawings: NAGY Associates. Template Fox-River-Corridor-Master-Plan-20151014-FINAL.

16. Sustainability (12)
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NAGY Associates & Bloomberg Associates. RIver City 2016. Bogotá, Colombia.
● Design with environmental responsibility in
mind.
● New buildings provide an opportunity to
demand sustainable features from
developers

17. Gabriel Nagy International Consultant – Housing, Finance and Development
Architect Msc. Planning and Urban Economics
Chicago, 2018
OTHER PROJECTS
Making Housing Policy Work

18. Transforming Cities - Building Communities
Mission
Our mission is to partner with researchers and practitioners to advise public or private clients in their efforts to deliver
solutions, transform cities, create value AND ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT. For more than 30 years NAGY
Associates (NA) has pioneered people-centered techniques, public-private partnerships, and market land-based
instruments to deliver solutions and finance development projects. The Firm's priorities include designing more
attractive, economically and environmentally sustainable communities.
Services
NAGY Associates solves real estate and urban planning problems. We work with teams during the Design Thinking
process to create people-centered communities and spaces while making sure the projects are economically feasible,
sustainable in the marketplace, technically sound, socially responsible and environmentally friendly. We help answer
the question is their sufficient market capacity and how to make the project better. Our clients are municipalities,
developers, and retailers, as well as architects and planners. We help in the conceptual stage and provide support in
the public and private review process.

19. 1st Street Redevelopment - St. Charles, IL
NAGY Associates, Sumac, Murray Commercial, Exp Realty and Jupiter
Realty

20. Residential - Affordable Housing
Rincón de Santa Fe - Soacha, Colombia
COLPATRIA Savings and Loans

21. Residential
Carlos Lleras Restrepo - Bogotá, Colombia
National Savings Fund

22. Residential
Adarves del Salitre - Bogotá, Colombia
National Savings Fund

23. Residential
TOD El Rincón - Bogotá, Colombia
NAGY Associates

24. Residential
Bosques de Suba - Bogotá, Colombia
FERVEL Construction

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