Great storefront game. Plants make all the difference.
SOUTHERN URBANISM
@southernurbanism.bsky.social
A digital magazine committed to building better cities in the South. Producer of the Better Cities Film Festival. Subscribe via southernurbanism.org
Societies accumulate meaning and value. Or societies accumulate trash. The choice is yours. Drawing by #LeonKrier, 1946-2025
New Townbuilder's Podcast episode: It's a candid look at what it takes to build a place that outlasts the developer who made it. #newurbanism #NTBA #urbandevelopment #placemaking #oklahoma Listen here ▶️ https://loom.ly/saY0MgE
Extractive, out-of-scale development of city centers can be parasitic. Incremental development via infill can be additive. Drawing by #LeonKrier, 1946-2025
"If we chase novelty, whether it’s through a shiny new plan or a shiny new machine, we neglect the simple, traditional principles that we know build great cities. And we neglect the hard work we need to do to get there. Read the latest essay by Billy Cooney: 👉viabio
The artwork coming out of the New Urbanism is unrivaled. Here is a lecture featuring Chuck Bohl, James Dougherty, and Victor Dover, co-authors of Art of the New Urbanism, on how their new book celebrates these great artists. https://youtu.be/XY_3LmHpW9g?si=hBPX9EFPl7HGFjSh @umiami
The Art of the New Urbanism Lecture, Alumni Honors, and Book Signing
UM SoA
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Today we published a new contrarian essay on data centers by Jamie Izurieta: 🔗➡️ bio "When politicians and activists protest data centers, they are often protesting the infrastructure that keeps ordinary life running." "People have always campaigned to stop technology."
This #MissingMiddle Housing graphic by @opticos has proven transformative to citybuilding. What other graphics have had a large influence on you? #housing #affordability #cities
This old lecture by @andresduany--to the #Charleston Board of Architectural Review--is full of great little nuggets, from rehabbing old firetrucks to the cultural attractiveness of wasting time. https://youtu.be/PWHTA2O9T2A?si=-gJhcXJHZGRrWAyK
Andrés Duany - City of Charleston B.A.R. Review - March 13, 2015
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company
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The University of Miami has one of the best Urban Design programs in the country. What other schools offer degrees in this specific field? @umiami
What can the Dutch teach us about building sane suburbs in the modern era? https://youtu.be/nImFJ7KKjAo?si=YyE10dGB0YtOBCp1 #cycling #pedestrian #humandesign
The Fascinating Human-Scale Urbanism of Dutch Suburbia
Oh The Urbanity!
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SITE PLAN SATURDAY | I’on | Vincent & Geoff Graham "I'On is a traditional neighborhood #development on a 250-acre parcel. The Plan includes a continuous public waterfront and marshfront, a wide range of dwelling sizes and types, 'live/work' units, and a corner store."
The new urban transect. Most of what is built in America today is T3 suburbia. Traditional urbanism is generally T4 & T5. #newurbanism #architecture #cityplanning
Check out this video explainer of #newurbanism by @citybeautiful: https://loom.ly/qf21z-s
What is New Urbanism?
City Beautiful
youtube.com
A century of neighborhood evolution. via Congress for the @newurbanism
Final Essay in the Series: American Land Use at 250 America’s greatest act of faith has always been planning for futures that don’t exist yet, and trusting the next person to build better. The map is not yet finished. Final essay: https://www.southernurbanism.org/publish/post/203990214
AMERICAN LAND USE at 250: Essay 4, Nick Larkins From Jefferson’s yeoman farmers to the mythic cowboy, America’s soul has always lived in this balance. Suburbia tried to split the difference, and failed to deliver on any of the founding values. 🔗 Full essay https://loom.ly/hu-pxLA
Cowboys and Industry
The health of American culture depends on building both a healthy cityscape and a healthy countryside, the two halves of the human habitat.
southernurbanism.org
AMERICAN LAND USE at 250: Essay 3 What if the most American thing about cities isn’t the buildings— but the imagination it takes to keep re-drawing them? Because being American means never being satisfied with the current map. 🔗 Full essay https://www.southernurbanism.org/publish/post/204011078
Seeing What Isn’t There
How Imagination Shaped Me and My Country
southernurbanism.org
AMERICAN LAND USE at 250 (Essay 2, by Eli Smith): In this new essay, Elijah Smith explores how mid-20th century urban planning traded messy, tolerant, evolving neighborhoods for utopian visions of perfection — and how we’re still paying the price. 🔗 Full essay in bio / link in
SITE PLAN SATURDAY | Trillith | Dan Cathy, Lew Oliver "Trilith is a new town for about 5,000 people, created using the principles of #NewUrbanism. About 30% of single-family residents and about 70% of multifamily units are associated with Trilith Studios."
This November marks the centenary of Village of Euclid v. Ambler — the ruling that constitutionalized modern zoning and changed everything. Was Euclid a necessary evil or a foundational mistake? 👇 Read Aaron Lubeck’s timely essay 👉viaBio #ZoningReform #Housing #Urbanism #SCOTUS #YIMBY
🚨 New Southern Urbanism Series: "American Land Use at 250" 🚨 Our five columnists examine how the human spirit shapes American towns and continue our founding legacy as the country approaches its 250th birthday. What lessons from history should guide our next chapter? link via bio
Happy birthday to one of the greatest artists behind the new urbanism movement, Architect Dhiru Thadani.
I AM a house. CALL ME a house. Great architecture speaks for itself. And Krier believed that traditions work for a reason. “Lessons from Léon: Krier on North Carolina” is our series honoring Léon Krier (1946–2025).
June's events! Join us this afternoon (Tuesday, June 2nd) at 4pm EST for Happy Hour with our columnists! We'll be discussing columnist Billy Cooney's recent article "Where Did the Planners Go?" You can find the livestream at southernurbanism.org
"The things we build are reflections of the things we love. Our built environment, and the things which fill it, are shoddy because as a people, we have largely forgotten our heart." Columnist Nick Larkins writes. Read his article today at the link in our bio.
"In 1906, San Francisco lost 60% of its housing stock in a single morning. Somehow, there was no ‘housing crisis.’ Yet the city was able to house everyone, fully rebuild its housing stock, and recover its population inside three years." Read Jaime Izurieta's column today at the link in our bio.
SITE PLAN SATURDAY | 3rd Street Cottages | Ross Chapin "This was the first contemporary ‘#pocketneighborhood’ that set the stage for all the others that followed, confirming 8 smaller #cottages have less impact than 4 large homes on the same site and that there is a market for cottages." #design
"Politics in a blue city are strange because struggles for power don’t unfold through policy, but through vibes, and by extension, language. Factions seeking narrative control during elections use buzzwords to convince citizens that they are progressive." Read today at the link in our bio.
