ABSTRACT
Some critical ideas that have shaped our cities are the product of our experience of actual physical forms and designs rather than self-conscious design principles: Las Vegas and Los Angeles come to mind. Others often are the result of a judicious mix of actual design and the writings that accompany them: Hausmann’s Paris and Cerda’s Barcelona are examples. Still others are movements better known for their writings and organizational activities and the effects these have had on the larger discourse about urbanism rather than the projects that they have brought to fruition. The New Urbanism is just such a phenomenon. Since its founding in 1993 as the Congress of the New Urbanism, the New Urbanism has addressed a whole range of challenges posed by contemporary urbanism: the automobile, connectivity, growth, sustainability, sprawl, regionalism, and equity, among others. From the beginning it has been a movement dedicated to: “The poetics of small town life, the virtues of sustainable communities, and the appeal of environments that emphasize the pedestrian over the automobile.” 1 Few, though, of the many and different projects New Urbanists claim as theirs have been fully realized and none have met the goals set out in their various charters and written texts.
