New Urbanism is an urban planning movement that promotes walkable, mixed-use communities as an alternative to separation of residential and commercial areas. It arose in the 1980s in response to auto-oriented development and aims to reduce reliance on cars by bringing housing, jobs, and services closer together. New Urbanist neighborhoods feature a range of housing types, interconnected streets, public spaces, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure to make communities more sustainable, healthy, and economically vibrant.

1. New Urbanism

2. What is New Urbanism?
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Renewable
Energy
Electric
Transportation
Walkable
Urbanism

3. Notes -
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods
containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced
many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New Urbanists support: regional
planning for open space; context-appropriate architecture and planning; adequate provision of infrastructure such as sporting
facilities, libraries and community centres; and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe their strategies can
reduce traffic congestion by encouraging the population to ride bikes, walk, or take the train.

4. It promotes the creation and restoration of
diverse
walkable
compact
vibrant
mixed-use communities
It is an international movement to reform the
design of the built environment, and is about
raising our quality of life and standard of living by
creating better places to live.
The rural to urban transect, or urban transect, is a
tool used to analyze and categorize community
form and character.

5. Notes -
New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same
components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. It is the most
important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to reform the
design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live. New Urbanism is
the most important planning movement this century, and is about creating a better future for us all. It is an international movement to
reform the design of the built environment, and is about raising our quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live.

6. Walkability:
• Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work
• Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street;
porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street
parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow,
slow speed streets)
• Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases
Connectivity:
• Interconnected street grid network disperses traffic &
eases walking
• A hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys
• High quality pedestrian network and public realm makes
walking pleasurable
PRINCIPLES OF NEW URBANISM

7. Mixed - Use & Diversity
• A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site.
Mixed-use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and
within buildings
• Diversity of people - of ages, income levels, cultures,
and races
Mixed Housing
A range of types, sizes
and prices in closer
proximity

8. Quality Architecture & Urban Design
Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of
place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within community.
Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human
spirit
Quality of Life
Taken together these add up to a high quality of life
well worth living, and create places that enrich,
uplift, and inspire the human spirit.

9. Traditional Neighbourhood Structure
• Discern able center and edge
• Public space at center
• Importance of quality public realm; public open space
designed as civic art
• Contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute
walk
Transect Planning
1. Highest densities at town center; progressively less
dense towards the edge. The transect is an
analytical system that conceptualizes mutually
reinforcing elements, creating a series of specific
natural habitats and/or urban lifestyle settings.
2. The Transect integrates environmental
methodology for habitat assessment with zoning
methodology for community design.
3. The professional boundary between the natural and
man-made disappears, enabling environmentalists
to assess the.
4. Design of the human habitat and the urbanists to
support the viability of nature.
5. This urban-to-rural transect hierarchy has
appropriate building and street types for each area
along the continuum.

10. Increased Density
• More buildings, residences, shops, and
services closer together for ease of walking,
to enable a more efficient use of services
and resources, and to create a more
convenient, enjoyable place to live.
• New Urbanism design principles are
applied at the full range of densities from
small towns, to large cities
Green Transportation
• A network of high-quality trains connecting
cities, towns, and neighborhoods together
• Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a
greater use of bicycles, rollerblades,
scooters, and walking as daily transportation
Sustainability
• Minimal environmental impact
of development and its
operations
• Eco-friendly technologies,
respect for ecology and value of
natural systems
• Energy efficiency
• Less use of finite fuels
• More local production
• More walking, less driving

11. ● Decreased Reliance on Transportation
● Increased Economic Viability
● Improved Community Health
● Advanced Sustainability
BENEFITS
● Increased Businesses
● Save Materials and Embedded Energy
● Saves Cultures
● Diversity

12. Notes -
Decreased Reliance on Transportation
New Urbanism promotes alternative transportation with an emphasis on on-foot transportation. Through mixed-used design, New Urbanism helps bring a wider
variety of city uses together in w close proximity. This helps reduce pollution, keep congestion down, and helps residents live a healthier, more active lifestyle
Increased Economic Viability
Lower costs per capita, increase of tax base, and greater accessibility to patrons allow people to spend less on transportation, as well as numerous other benefits
which add to a healthier economy.
Improved Community Health
An emphasis on mixed-use design and similar concepts provides a healthier and more engaging city life. It also help promote safer city planning. It provides greater
access to affordable, healthy foods.
Advanced Sustainability
New Urbanism encourages green transportation, and utilizes various sustainable building methods. This helps cities achieve a greater level of sustainability.
I

13. Notes -
Increased BUSINESSES
Increased sales due to more foot traffic & people spending less on cars and gas; More profits due to spending less on advertising and large signs
Save materials and embedded energy
If you make a city dense and diverse, you save on materials. You’ll need less roads and pavement, less power lines and telephone cables, less plumbing and
drainage and sewers. You’ll save materials and energy and space
Saves cultures
they lack a sense of history and identity, and quickly degenerate into alienating societies not worth defending.
Diversity
Gives a lot of importance to a diverse group of people living in one neighborhood. This means there should be neighborhoods and communities with people of
every age, income level, background, racial ethnicity, and cultures. It is all about racial harmony, the intermingling of people with different background and also
people of different ages, young and old living together.

14. NEW YORK 1800

15. AMSTERDAM PLAN
It was an inefficient idea in NY, that then, Governor,
William Kieft, had a road for ease of movement
immediately to the north.
TRINITY
CORPORATION
First Office Building
Horse-Drawn Tramp 1831

16. MANHATTAN

17. MANHATTAN
PRIOR TO COMMISSIONERS PLAN
● The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original
design for the streets of Manhattan, which put in
place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots
that has defined Manhattan to this day.
● By the end of the eighteenth century, the Collect
Pond had turned into a quite literal cesspool, and
the city paved it over to accommodate a booming
population.
● It has been called "the single most important
document in New York City's development.
● For the first two hundred years of Manhattan
history, the Collect Pond, a lovely, spring-fed
reservoir that bubbled up on the border of what is
now Chinatown and the Financial District, was the
main water source for most city dwellers.
● The streets grew up organically around it, private
roads bounded by a vacant, rocky, wasteland to the
north.
A portion of a map of the city from 1776

18. ● The Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, the map and surveying
scheme that set the blocks at 200 by 800 feet all the way up the
length of the island, was a gamble on growth.
● The grid was far from simple to achieve. “Mannahatta”
translates to “island of hills,”.
● There were problems with the plan: a lack of public parks and
open space, constant congestion, overbuilt lots, no urban
openings for important buildings.
● The population of New York had tripled, and the
commissioners predicted that by 1860, New York would have
almost the same population as Paris. The only open space the
Commissioners allowed was a parade ground in the vicinity of
present-day Madison Square. But the grid system allowed for
these cut-throughs to happen later, in the form the thousand
smaller parks and plazas easily carved out of the 1811 plan.
● The grid was easier to implement on the flat East side than on
the hilly West. Huge outcroppings of rocks blocked the way for
most development. Small mountains had to be blasted apart or
cut through.
COMMISSIONERS PLAN OF 1811 - THE GRIDIRON

19. THE NEW - NEW YORK
● To transform New York into a “sustainable city” they have
set goals, to be monitored by a new Sustainability Advisory
Board made up of scientists, scholars, academics, city
planners and environmentalists.
● To reduce emissions that contribute to global warming by
30% by 2030.
● Open 90% of the surrounding rivers, harbours and bays for
recreation by reducing water pollution and preserving
natural spaces.
● The goals include a massive increase in affordable housing;
the pledge that every New Yorker will live within ten
minutes' walk of a public park; and an overhaul of public
transport, including a subway extension.
● Upgrading the city's power supply, and making it far
greener, seems certain to be one crucial battleground.

20. CHICAGO
There was a pressure to declutter and clean the city to result
in a beautifully designed and liveable space.
The City Beautiful Movement in Chicago became a direct
response to urbanization and industrialization to make the
polluted and congested city beautiful once more.
It resembled European cities with Beaux-Arts style
architecture, which promoted neoclassical elements as well
as influence from the Baroque tradition.

21. Notes -
In response to dirty, overcrowded and highly urbanized cities, there was a pressure to declutter and clean
the city to result in a beautifully designed and livable space. The City Beautiful Movement in Chicago
became a direct response to urbanization and industrialization to make the polluted and congested city
beautiful once more.
It was directed by Daniel Burnham, where it became known as the “White City” because buildings were
mostly white and they were all aesthetically monumental. This directly led to the City Beautiful Movement
after 1893, and lasted until the official plan for Chicago.
This included neoclassical temples and beautification in order to rid of the “social ills” of society.
This reform movement inspired civic loyalty and a movement away from the impoverished lifestyle of many
urban cities in the late 1800s. Another element of the City Beautiful Movement was a step towards
resembling European cities with Beaux-Arts style architecture, which promoted neoclassical elements as
well as influence from the Baroque tradition.
Although the City Beautiful Movement was a significant aspect of Burnham’s plan for the city, it did have
flaws in not addressing poverty, pressures of immigration, poor housing and overcrowding; the movement
was dwindling down by 1915, leaving its “formative years to be 1897-1902.

22. BURHAM PLAN
● Improving lakefront
● Regional Highway
● Improving railways
● Open parks
● Systematic streets
● Civic Center of City

23. Notes -
A) Improving lakefront: The plan wanted to reclaim the lakefront that surrounds Chicago in order to allow the
public to be more in touch with it because it “belongs to them.” This design element allowed for trade,
commerce, and appeal to the growing city during the early twentieth century. The plan suggested
building parks along waterfront and expanding harbor facilities in proximity to the water.
B) Regional Highway: A highway system would allow for ease of connection to the center city of Chicago to
surrounding nodes, which is especially crucial during the emergence of the automobile age. This urban
design element of a central business city center and surrounding residential is in order to create a
de-clustering of the urban downtown. Highways were built to be radial and circumferential in order to
allow for automobiles to have eased when commuting in the 1920s.
C) Improving railways: This would allow for better transportation to and from the city, which can allow for
more trade and more commercial appeal to the city. In the plan, this would lead to economic growth for
booming Chicago. Expansion of the railways would lead to enlargement of the business district south
and outward.
D) Open parks: Preservation of natural areas would allow for a connection to open space. This is important
to the design of the city because it gives open spaces and pathways for pedestrians to roam freely.
E) Systematic streets: Incorporation of wider street ways that were set out in diagonal pathways would help
to connect the civic centers to the surrounding areas but also were designed to relieve traffic.
F) Civic Center of City: In an effectively planned city, there is the main focus on the center based around
government and business/ commercial districts. Sometimes known as a “downtown” or even a
monumental civic center. Burnham proposed a cultural center in Grant Park as the central axis of the city,
which would be the field Museum.

24. SUSTAINABILITY IN NEW URBANISM
- Reducing traffic
- Making smart transportation investments
- Creating sustainable development
- These are all challenges we face today.
- New Urbanism is a development strategy that addresses these issues and more by creating
communities that are livable, walkable, & sustainable, while raising the quality of life.

25. THE SOLUTION . . .
The solution is in rebuilding our existing cities, and densifying our suburbs into compact, walkable towns and
cities connected by extensive train systems. This form of development is known as a Transit Village, or Transit
Oriented Development (TOD), and provides a higher quality, sustainable living environment. This gives us the
choice of getting around by a number of different means including trains, bicycles, walking, rollerblading, and
scooters.

26. PROS & CONS OF SKYSCRAPERS
● Maximises land usage
● Inhabitant benefits
● Status Symbol
● Urban planning & population control
● Source of renewable energy
● Effective public transport
● Strain on the sewage system
● The tiniest mistake can be catastrophic
● High construction cost
● Elevator power consumption
● Limited contact with nature

28. DOWNFALLS
● Area is confined
● Amenities are restricted to use of Residents
● Developers will have self-centered goals
● Cheapest land is available on the outskirts

29. Notes -
Some major critiques of New Urbanism are that its effective area is confined to the neighborhood boundaries, it may
be used as a marketing scheme by developers, and it is hard to implement in existing neighborhoods.
In a New Urbanism neighborhood, the residents can utilize the pedestrian friendly streets and close amenities; but the
benefits of the neighborhood are limited to the residents.
New Urbanist communities will always be built by developers whose goal is to make a profit.
Usually the cheapest, and easiest land to develop is on the outskirts of town, so even with the best environmental
design, the negative effects of a remote location counteract the benefits.