18 April 2008

Qualls a Green New Urbanist

New Urbanists are somewhat split between those who consider themselves modernist and those that prefer traditional architecture and design. There are further divisions in this movement, for example, some favor rehabilitation of existing cities and buildings and some favor new development.

Some members of the Congress for the New Urbanism have been proponents of adding Green issues to the CNU Charter. Traditionalists have been skeptical of this, saying that traditionally designed cities and buildings are inherently green and sustainable.

Cincinnati Councilmember, Roxanne Qualls is a proponent of the green movement. A group was formed and met late last year in DC to draft principles or "canons" that would be presented to the annual CNU meeting in April 2008.

At the annual meeting in Austin, Texas, on April 5th, Roxanne became one of the first signers of the Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism.

here is a PDF file of the canons.

2 comments:

Dan said...

Shouldn't she be FOR the streetcar then?

CityKin said...

Some points in the canons that reference transportation:

"pattern of blocks and streets shall be compact and designed in a well-connected network for easy, safe and secure walkability (to) reduce overall vehicular
usage by decreasing travel time and trip length. "

"A wide range of parking strategies (such as park-once districts, shared parking,
parking structures, reduced parking requirements, minimized surface parking areas and vehicle sharing) shall be used to constrict the supply of parking in order to induce less driving..."

"physical organization of the region shall promote transit, pedestrian and bicycle systems to maximize access and mobility while reducing dependence on automobiles and trucks."