Essay The Congress for New Urbanism and Environmental Awareness

Paul Goldberger, an American architectural critic once quoted, “Urbanism works when it creates the journey as desirable as the destination.”

In today’s society the landscape of the city is constantly changing to accommodate for technological innovations, greater populations, and economic opportunity. As the skyline of cities across America are changing at a rate faster than ever seen before, one immense community is being left in the dust. The suburbs of America have refused to change, allowing a great resemblance of what they looked like 50 years ago. The stubbornness of the suburbs to change has led to many issues economically and environmentally. In her essay, “Seventy-Five Percent”, Ellen Dunham-Jones puts forth that 75% of construction in the past decade occurs in the suburban landscape. Yet, in today’s society much of the architectural community contains a strong bias against the suburbs. However, with over half the country’s

Unlike most of the persuasive essays needed many “power” words to persuade readers, R. Crumb’s comic, “A Short History of America”, reflects the change of the natural, ecological landscape to urban area without using any words. Nevertheless, his drawing deeply shows us the down side of the urbanization and we human-being are destroying our indispensable nature. We are going the exact opposite direction to a better life; we are going to live in the life where we totally rely on technology and advanced, luxurious materials. Humans will never be satisfied and keep changing. However, while we’re keeping changing, have we ever asked: What are we doing to our nature?

Urban sprawl was a major problem and had many negative effects. "Suburban sprawl, “called urban sprawl was a result of overpopulation. Sprawl occurred when cities spread outward. Forests and farmland were being destroyed to create new housing subdivisions, shopping centers, offices, parking areas, civic institutions and roadways. State governments built highways and roads to serve all the new commuters moving in and out of the city. Developers chose to build on less expensive land farther away from the urban core. Land prices were lower and housing in these developments was more affordable. Some people chose a longer commute in exchange for more comfortable, low-priced housing. The sprawl was a chronological process that devastated the land and life of the American people. This problem described here continues to be a problem. And many people are unaware that urban sprawl continues to be a problem. Friendly neighborhoods, traditional pedestrian have fallen victim to this problem. Environmental activists claimed that urban sprawl, was a substantial environmental threat. But activists concerned about sprawl should concentrate on existing government policies that encourage suburban development and prevent greater redevelopment of urban areas.

The Eco-City Charter serves as a document to guide City leaders and residents towards a more sustainable, holistic, and healthy environment (City of Alexandria, 2010). Ecologically, the charter ensures that all parts of the natural and built environments work together as a single ecological system; economically, it ensures a healthy economy that supports and sustains people and the environment in which they live over the long-term; and socially; it ensures that a community meets residents’ basic needs and has the resiliency to prevent and/or address problems in the future (City of Alexandria, 2010).

In Robert Bruegmann article “How Sprawl Got a Bad Name,” he is the odd man out and is for sprawling. One of his reasons throughout is that all the architectures plan for preventing the problem has failed. Bruegmann shows his argument that the economy has these set of expectations for today’s society. The citizens are not really thinking realistically when it comes to those modern expectations. He backs up his point by stating a big crisis of traffic in Los Angeles and how it is not the congestion it is that the programs sit in place are outdated. One of the more convincing reasons of why Bruegmann is supporting sprawl is “that growing numbers of people have discovered that it is the surest way to obtain the rich, satisfying

The development that is happening, however, is not the issue, the way we develop land is the difficult situation. When low-density residential areas are built, such as schools and roads, it is called a sprawl type of development. This ruins forests, farms, and shorelines, and degrades water and land habitats. Neighborhoods keep expanding and in 2015, the average home

Looking at the smart growth planning concept, it is clear that it has gained traction and is being embraced as a counter measure to urban sprawl. Smart growth is a concept that advocates economic and community development that is carefully planned and that attempts to check urban sprawl and worsening conditions of the environment. This program promotes walk able and bike able urban areas with mixed-use development and road construction on a limited scale (Joel 3). At the core of the smart growth concept of planning is the need to address issues of transportation, population density, and housing through the construction of mixed-use properties. Compact, mixed use and infill development near transit, jobs, shops, schools, and other community centers can strengthen communities, expand housing choices and affordability, as well as promote

Burgess’s concentric zone theory was presented in 1924. He presented a descriptive urban land use model that divided cities in a set of concentric circles expanding from downtown to the suburbs. His representation came from Burgess’ observations of various American cities, especially Chicago. Burgess model assumes a relationship between the socio-economic status of households and the distance from the Central Business District. The further from the district, the better the quality of housing, but the longer the commuting time. Making this Accessing better housing is done at the expense of longer commuting times and costs as well. According to Burgess, urban growth is a process of expansion and reconversion of land uses, with a tendency of each inner zone to expand in the outer zone. According to Burgess’ theory, a large city is divided in six concentric zones, Burgess’s model has its cons according to critics. It is said to be a product of its time. That is, it won’t work the same with present cities. The model was developed when American cities were growing very fast and when motorized transportation was still uncommon as most people used public transit. Thus the concept cannot be applied to those from the second half to the twentieth century where highways have enabled urban development to escape the reconversion process and to take place directly in the suburbs. The model in this case was developed for American cities and is limited elsewhere.

Smart growth is choosing a better way for communities and cities to grow without hurting the environment. “For example, the recently emerged concept smart growth is inviting communities and metropolitan areas to address sprawl and purposely choose to develop in more environmentally sustainable ways. The concept recognizes that growth will occur and focuses on economic, environmental,

New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,

An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of

The question to answer this week is whether Sustainable Urban Developments require more policy innovation and planning. Taylor gives us an abstract in how the opposing sides address whether current approaches meet present-day urban and metropolitan needs, or whether further activities and proposals are needed to achieve these ultimate goals (Taylor, pp. 271 – 288).

[1] Explained by this exemplifies that a city should have a foundation for it to grow off of. I do believe this will also be the doing of the citizens that help plan at meetings with communities, yet a good foundation is what will lead to a “good city”. Furthermore, with the influence of citizens, a good city will develop from nothing and will have a sense of cultural background from the past of citizens who live there currently.

The garden city movement, a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard, had a significant influence on urban planning. The theory of urban planning has envolved over the past hundred years, some have attempted to emulate theories from the garden city movement, while others have been revised based on Howard’s original ideas. The Garden City concept spawned many ideas of urban planning. Among these ideas, the Garden Suburb, Satellite City, the New Towns Movement and the New Urbanism are all significant theories in the history of urban planning and had their influence to this day. The integration of town and country, the separation of conflicting land uses and modes of travel, and the ideas of growth management are all elements of the Garden City concept that have made made their ways into plans of most major Western cities.