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PROVIDENCE, June 5. Here's what attendees at the just-concluded CNU XIV took away from the three-day conference here:
For New Urbanist practioners, it's been an exhilarating year of rewarding work. Benchmark achievements of 2005 and 2006 so far include efforts in the wake of the Gulf Coast's 2005 hurricanes, plus partnerships with the U.S. Green Building Council on neighborhood planning certification and with traffic engineers on community-compatible standards for urban streets. Now, it's time to build on the growing public awareness of the movement.
By the time CNU XV convenes next spring in Philadelphia, we should be able to sense progress on some of the big issues that were hot topics in Providence. Among them: Affordable housing (see more here) and planning with the long energy emergency in mind.
CNU chair Hank Dittmar told Congress attendees in the closing Sunday sessions that the organization is expanding. By 2010, CNU intends to achieve a membership of 5,000 from its current base of 3,000. And he assured current members that the growth would not come at the expense of the CNU's reputation for being united on core principles and open to vigorous debate on just about everything else. "We are not a cult," Dittmar told attendees, to appreciative laughter. "We are a rabble."
Introduced by Andres Duany, who recredited him with career-changing inspiration
to the first generation of New Urbanists, Christopher Alexander and Leon Krier
were honored on Sunday with Athena medals. This is no lifetime achievement
award, said Duany. "We'd
like to think that their most productive years are still ahead of these guys." (For
text of Hank Dittmar's presentation of an Athena Award presented on Saturday
to Christopher Alexander, click here;
for the text of Michael Mehaffy's introduction to Alexander's "Unfolding" session,
click here.)
Krier shared his latest ideas for "tuning" urban architecture to better integrate classical and vernacular forms. And he echoed author and fellow Congress participant James Howard Kuntsler about the bad news/good news of rising energy costs: While a traumatic transition awaits our fossil-fuel dependent society, it's likely to force planners and designers to accommodate reality in applying theory, perhaps for the first time in their careers. "The problem is not technology," said Krier. "It's the way we understand technology . There will not be a technology in the future unless it is ecological."
Krier also predicted that one of New Urbanism's fundamental precepts, that meaningful results require an intentional process, will become increasingly apparent. The elements of successful "humane settlements," said Krier, "are not mere byproducts" of a process. Rather they are achieved through "conscious intent by a civilizing vision and a determined will."
Before leading CNU members in a discussion of proposed amendments to the Charter, John Norquist, president of the CNU, devoted time in the closing session to thank the Providence organizing committee for a Congress that enjoyed record attendance and a celebratory atmosphere not in the least dampened by the weekend's rain. More than a few of the final day's attendees - including Norquist himself - deserved credit for making the morning sessions after a night of first-hand participation in the rewards of urban community - rewards that include an active nightlife.
Next year: Philadelphia and the chance to measure progress toward the CNU's goal of changing the world one neighborhood, one community at a time.
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 Check out
scenes from the
conference.
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